Waterside bars will remain closed until Tuesday hearing

NORFOLK

Have a Nice Day Cafe and Bar Norfolk will remain closed over the weekend as their owners wrangle with the city over the fate of the two Waterside nightclubs.

Circuit Judge Norman A. Thomas on Friday afternoon pushed back a hearing contesting the bars' ability to open and serve alcohol until next Tuesday morning.

Both establishments have been padlocked shut by their landlords, Waterside Associates LLC.  The shutout occurred because the bars continued to serve alcohol after City Council on Tuesday revoked a zoning permit allowing them to do so.

The city filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the judge to prohibit the clubs from serving alcohol; early Friday afternoon, the bars counter-sued requesting that Thomas overturn the City Council's ruling and order Waterside Associates to unlock the doors and allow them to operate. Waterside Associates is a private company operated by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

At a court hearing Friday afternoon, attorneys for NRHA and Waterside Associates failed to appear.  Without the attorneys present, Thomas said he could not consider the bars' request to reopen immediately.

That made the city's need for a prohibition on alcohol sales moot, because the bars are padlocked shut and inoperable, said Virginia Beach attorney Kevin Martingayle, who represents both Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe.

City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko asked Thomas repeatedly to hear the city's motion today, saying the bars had "thumbed their nose at the law" by serving alcohol after the City Council revoked a use permit to do so.

Martingayle, meanwhile, has publicly lashed out at city officials, saying their tactics are heavy-handed and unnecessary.

In the lawsuit filed Friday, he argued that the city had no authority to enforce alcohol sales at the bars because both were open before Waterside came under a mid-1999 special exception zoning permit.

“These two restaurants are vested and grandfathered,” he said. “They were open before the first overall permit was ever granted.”

The council revoked the buildingwide permit Tuesday and issued individual licenses to each restaurant in the entertainment complex. Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe were the only two establishments in Waterside to be prohibited from serving alcohol.

Mayor Paul Fraim said Thursday that the public needs to understand why the city has taken forceful measures. City leaders want to remake Waterside’s image by turning it into a more family-friendly entertainment venue.

City officials have repeatedly said they’ve had problems at both bars, ranging from intoxicated patrons to Alcohol Beverage Control Board violations.

Police reported three arrests Wednesday night at Waterside – one on a charge of being drunk in public and two on charges of disorderly conduct. “Pretty par for the course for Waterside,” police spokesman Chris Amos said.

Martingayle said that if anyone is responsible for emotions getting out of control, it’s the city, which he said revoked the bars’ permits to serve alcohol with only hours of notice and padlocked the doors to Have a Nice Day Cafe without notice.

“My view is that the city has elevated this from a garden-variety zoning dispute into something of a holy war,” he said. “When the facts and the law are on your side, you don’t have to ambush like they have done.”