History Smiles On Liquor License Bid

A 1946 Burgert Brothers' photograph was among key evidence persuading city officials that beer, wine and liquor can flow freely at The Retreat, an upscale bar catering to young professionals.

A particular memory of property owner Nicholas Massari goes back even further to a famous day in history: the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

He was 7, often in and out of Milano's Restaurant, which his father, Domenic, leased to the Ipolito family. "I remember seeing all the tables in the restaurant," Massari said at a Dec. 17 variance review board hearing that upheld the city's ruling. "Each of the tables had chianti in a straw basket and the shelves loaded with liquor bottles."

The Retreat is in a former restaurant at 123 S. Hyde Park Ave.

The photograph and memory are crucial to an on-going alcohol license dispute, sparked in 2007 when The Retreat's owners filed a wet-zoning application, later withdrew it amid neighborhood protests, then in March took their case to the city's zoning administrator.

The city's variance review board in December upheld the administrator's ruling that The Retreat could sell beer, wine and liquor because alcohol - including liquor - previously was sold at the location on Hyde Park Avenue. That decision is not sitting well with neighbors, the First Baptist Church of Tampa and the University of Tampa. The university filed an appeal scheduled to be heard by city council members at 1:30 p.m. on March 5.

Until March, the bar, which replaced the Mouse Trap saloon in 2007, was known to sell beer only. The Retreat is named for another bar that reportedly opened at the same location in 1938. Other businesses at the location have been Milano's, Dave's Grill and the Peanut Gallery.

The December hearing before the variance review board drew a large crowd.

"We have a great neighborhood and great neighbors," Charles Pittman, a member of First Baptist, said at the hearing. "Right in the middle of this neighborhood we have a cancer. This is the wrong place for the sale of whiskey."

Others found The Retreat an ideal place to cap off the work day or a downtown event.

"It's a safe, comfortable convenient place with ample parking," said Clint Urso. "It provides a lounge atmosphere as opposed to the rough atmosphere of Ybor City."

Simmering Disagreement

The dispute bubbled up in 2007 when members of First Baptist opposed plans to expand alcohol sales at 113-123 S. Hyde Park Ave. The property then was thought to have two wet-zonings: beer at The Retreat, and beer and wine sales at Café European restaurant.

The Massari family owns the Retreat property which includes the bar, Café European, Model Cash Grocery and the Christian Science Reading Room.

Rick Calderoni, owner of The Retreat as well as the Green Iguana restaurants, said he hopes to sell burgers and salads at The Retreat. He said employees keep under-age drinkers out of the bar, using an electronic scanner to spot fake identifications.

A yogurt shop will open next door in the former Hyde Park Hemp shop.

Calderoni said he is confounded by the opposition from the university, which allows alcohol in students' dormitories.

At the variance review board hearing, the university's dean of students, Bob Ruday, said, "We were dealt a severe injustice" by the city's ruling. The university does not want to "liberalize in any way the consumption of alcohol."

Photo, Testimony Seal Deal

A zoning administrator found, and the variance review board agreed, the historical photo showing shelves of liquor behind the bar at Milano's Restaurant, historical city maps and customers' affidavits, were proof of continuous beer, wine and alcohol sales since 1945.

The decision is grounded in a city code, effective June 19, 1945, regarding regulation of alcohol sales. Businesses selling alcohol before that date were "grandfathered in" based on the types of beverages they sold at the time.

Attorney David Mechanik, representing the university, said the bar's owners have to show a license from 1945. "I wouldn't dispute that they served beer there but there was no license," he said.

The Retreat's owners can't produce that license - the state's records were purged and don't go back that far.

Board member Sue Lyons, who cast the only no vote, wondered about the more recent beer-only sales at The Retreat.

"If they had a license to sell [liquor], why didn't they sell it?" she said.

Even though the bar can sell liquor, Zoning Administrator Cathy Coyle said the license doesn't require such sales.

What can trigger a license loss is abandoning sales for at least 60 days.

Mechanik provided e-mails from county health department and city water department indicating periods of water cut-off and lack of a health certificate. A business directory listed the site as vacant in 1951.

Mark Bentley, the attorney for The Retreat, disputed the university's evidence, saying available records show the same license transferred from one business to another through the years.

"The property has never been dried up in its 63-year history," he said.