A Road Home turns into Road Kill

It has been 18 months since Gabrielle Restaurant cooked its last meal as a New Orleans restaurant. In our minds as the owners, there could be hardly anything worse than having something like this happen. 

We operated a restaurant for nearly14 years in a city that has the best food and people in the world.

Our life as restaurateurs came to a stop 18 months ago for reasons that are still being debated upon nonetheless it was a chapter in our life that came to an end. The celebrations Gabrielle Restaurant served to patrons were over.

We started planning our comeback before the signal was given that the city was open for business once again.

The lights were coming back on and the recovery was under way.  Our location on Esplanade Ave. was badly damaged; no electricity or gas (restored in Jan., 2006) and telephones were going to be out for a while.  Phone lines and the business telephone number play such a critical role in the operation of a restaurant.  It was our main source of communication with customers for reservations and credit card transactions.  Gabrielle’s phone number became part of our identity.  They even had a special clause in our insurance policy about it. The policy that no one ever really opened until 18 months ago but paid to have it each year in case a catastrophe occurred. Certainly, we had a catastrophe and there can be no dispute of that. The policy we purchased through Argonaut Great Central Insurance Company read like an ambiguous mess and had to be studied daily in the months following the first incident. Its certainly wasn’t easy to understand and our adjuster from Chicago who said he was in the insurance business for 20 years had to do the same thing. He told us that we should look for a new location because things weren’t being restored as fast as they should be and understood that many businesses in our area would be without “overhead lines of communication” as the special clause states for a while. Great Argonaut pledged to keep us in business. The insurance company never told us where we should move to nor have they ever finished helping us recover from our loss and made good on their pledge. They sent us a cancellation letter in February of 2006. Our dispute with them is unfortunately being litigated on in the judicial system. How long till it is settled is anyone’s guess?  

Mary and I viewed this event as an opportunity to make things better for our family and livelihood. We always knew of the beautiful place down the street after moving our residence into the area several years back.

I would look at some of the functions going on when driving by on the way home from a night at work. I was happy to see that people were having a good time because something unique might have happened there. A girl at the intercontinental hotel recently told us that she had her wedding party there and stayed around till 3:00 a.m. celebrating with family and friends. She said she loved it and was so excited to hear that we might be moving our restaurant there. Many people today share her feelings and nobody was more excited than seeing us comeback than Mary and I. We started planning to reopen and couldn’t wait to tell the world where we are moving. Certainly this was good news to be shared with everyone and the paper even put something in it about us moving to a new venue. The business carried a permanent occupational permit with a table service restaurant printed on it. We thought this was great because the time it would take to go through a process of acquiring new permits would be very long so we figured it would be best to purchase the injured business and clear part of the road to our own recovery. Our dealings with city hall in the past with our businesses were frustrating to say the least and knew that nothing ever gets done fast. The local election was now in the run off time frame for our district Shelley Midura versus Jay Batt. I have never been active in any political campaign and always stayed out of endorsing one person over the other because doing so would mean taking a side and alienating patrons.  The run-off was very negative with “No Batt” signs seen on many grounds. I went down to the city hall department of revenue office for the second time after receiving temporary restaurant permits on the first trip. City Hall issued me another temporary permit on the second trip with  Not operating on it. I was told that I would have to talk to my councilperson to receive a permanent table service restaurant permit. Mary and I both wondered how we could operate or plan any business on a month-to-month basis and did this mean we couldn’t open. Shelley Midura had been elected in the runoff and I set up an appointment with her.  Our only meeting with Shelley was held on July 25, 2006. After the short meeting with Ms. Midura she said that she would help us out with our problem. She mentioned to us that Gabrielle’s was brought up in a pre-election debate and became a political issue during the campaign.  We found out later that Batt had signed a letter to the neighbors stating that he would not allow Gabrielle to open on Henry Clay. I received a note from Ms. Midura in late August of 2006 regarding our request for help and that the business at Henry Clay would need to file for a conditional use permit to receive a permanent table service restaurant permit. I then went about trying to find out what business I could operate out of 438 Henry Clay because I knew that this PROCESS was now going to take a long time.

Where could I find it in writing as to what we can operate with the permits that presently exist? Everyone at city hall made “No restaurant” perfectly clear to me even though a table service restaurant permit was issued to us and carried by the ongoing business we purchased for the last 10 years. While spending the last quarter of the 2006 renewing my monthly table service restaurant permits and opening lines of communication with the neighbors unbeknownst to us another campaign was about to escalate. It started with soliciting petitions against Gabrielle around the neighborhood. Mike Sherman and Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Sapir were orchestrating this. Mike Sherman was “chief of Staff” to Eddie Sapir when he was a City Councilman. Mike moved into a condominium down the street 10 months after the storm. The “No Gabrielle” sign campaign started on the night of November 21, 2006, our wedding anniversary. It was hard for my family to see these negative signs stating that we are not wanted and we are breaking the law.  These degrading signs are still posted today. Several neighbors wanted me to start my own campaign of yard signs and petitions.  I responded by putting out a clipboard promoting our return to business at the December Farmer’s Market because Gabrielle was selling the plate lunches there. Eddie Sapir was busy filing a complaint to the BZA in November contesting the legitimacy of a business at Henry Clay and Laurel. No notice of this hearing was ever given to us.  We collected a lot of signatures from our clipboard at the Farmer’s Market and presented them to Shelley Midura`s office. She responded with note saying that she is observing the situation.

 “A hearing shall be heard in 45 days after filing a complaint with the BZA” the law states.  Mike Sherman and Eddie Sapir did not attend the BZA hearing in December. They filed for a continuation. After 45 days was up, Howell Crosby, our recently hired Attorney, filed a temporary injunction with civil district court to uphold the city’s own written law. Many letters were written to Shelly Midura at this time. She replied to these e-mails with the same misinformed letter to everyone saying we are filing suit against the city of New Orleans and cannot comment. This letter was never corrected by Councilperson Shelly Midura`s office as to its inaccuracy (My wife Mary spent a long time replying to each heartfelt letter of support concerning us and personally thanked them). The temporary restraining order was contested by a new set of lawyers with Russ Herman representing them.   Who is “they” can only be answered by whoever hired Russ Herman and his law firm.  Mike Sherman and Eddie Sapir are both Attorneys. Another BZA hearing on Gabrielle was heard in February. Eddie Sapir attended it with his hired Attorney Basil Uddo. We were never notified of this second hearing by city hall. The BZA ruled anyway that our business was legal. What kind of business is legal at 438 Henry Clay?

 “Reception Hall Rental or Leasing” is what I am now issued from city hall and heard earlier rumors that this was going to be issued to Gabrielle at 438 Henry Clay.

During January and February I worked on reaching an agreement with the neighbors and thought that maybe Shelly Midura would get involved in this neighborhood process but she declared that Gabrielle would have to go through her “PROCESS” no matter what was worked out. Her process would take 6+ months and not a sure council vote in the end. A court battle would take 4 years a lot of money and the attorneys for “them” were telling us that they were prepared to do this.

Nothing in the life of a business is a sure thing especially the way our municipal government operates.   I now know its time to concede our cause because we are not only up against a horde of Attorneys at whatever I operate at 438 Henry Clay but shady politicians that blame business for their own faults. As a business owner, we merely try to follow the laws in this city.

We have spent so much time, money and effort into Gabrielle Restaurant’s comeback at 438 Henry Clay and now cannot cook and serve any of our dishes to anyone without completely “ignoring the law” and upsetting the neighbors “quality of life” as Councilperson Shelley Midura recently told us. I asked her at a District A forum if she could give me some kind of definition, rules and regulations regarding any business operating out of 438 Henry Clay. Her reply to me was that she would help work something out just as she said to us in July of 2006.

We can thank so very much the businesses, associations, organizations and people that have helped or offered to help us in our attempted comeback and tried to thwart these events from occurring. We gave it our best but now its time for us to move on.
We presently have the business and property “Up for Sale”.
I hope to be sharing my talents with another company soon.
Gabrielle Restaurant’s comeback will be put on hold indefinitely.
We sure had some great times when we were open for business and I will never forget that.

Thanks for the Memories New Orleans!

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Links to related articles regarding our situation:
http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-7/116901724757310.xml&coll=1

http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/rose/katrina/quality_of_strife.html
http://offbeat.com/artman/publish/printer_1928.shtml
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20070122/ai_n17148293

A Letter from Councilmember Midura
Date: 4/4/2007 7:28:18 P.M. Atlantic Daylight Time
From: SMidura@cityofno.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Dear Residents of District A:

Several controversial issues are being discussed around town, and I want to provide to you direct information about my position on them without media and internet filters. I would also like to reiterate several values and approaches that guide my activities while in office.

Gabrielle’s

A website exists and an e-mail is circulating with wild fabrications about my position, relationship, and activities related to the Sonniers’ attempt to convert the former banquet hall, The Uptowner, into a restaurant. I would like to make the following points regarding this issue, because I have been criticized for not getting involved, staying quiet, and/or being unwilling to help them in this attempt.

From the beginning, I have indicated to the Sonniers that they must follow the process of applying for a change in the non-conforming use, operate the facility in accordance with the existing non-conforming use, which is catering/reception hall, or simply apply for a zoning change to convert the banquet hall facility into a restaurant. This process requires submitting an application to the City, engaging the neighborhood, appearing before the City Planning Commission, and ultimately, obtaining City Council approval. I informed Mr. Sonnier and his attorney that I expected neighborhood opposition, but at the appropriate time I would mediate -- much along the lines of what was occurring with the Walgreen’s/Robert’s development at the Carrollton/Claiborne intersection. Mr. Sonnier has never filed an application to rezone that lot into a restaurant, but has done just about everything else possible to strong-arm me into agreeing to grant him the new zoning code in advance of the process--which includes neighborhood input. In other words, he wanted me to pre-determine the outcome, as part of some backroom deal which would have insulted the integrity of the process and those that believe that they would have “their day in court” (or Council in this case), something which I am unwilling to do.

Just as a judge should never make a deal with a lawyer representing a plaintiff or defendant behind closed doors to rule in favor of their client prior to a trial where both sides can fairly make their case, I will not prejudice any application that comes before me as a member of the New Orleans City Council.

At this point, if Mr. Sonnier had followed the procedures my office outlined to him last year, he may very well already have been operating his new restaurant. We will never know, however, because he refuses to submit to the legal process. Several other crucial pieces of information: Although he says he wants to open this facility as a restaurant, we also have an e-mail dated October 12, 2006 to the Office of Economic Development stating:

“There must be some misunderstanding. I purchased an ongoing catering/reception hall business, The Uptowner, Inc. This is not a new business. I want to continue to operate the catering/reception hall business that I purchased. As you are aware, the City of New Orleans calls this a restaurant on the Occupational License.

It is my intention to keep the present status as the prior owners of the business. The only change being that the business will be called The Uptowner, Inc DBA Gabrielle’s. The Uptowner, Inc. owns all of the licenses for the business. We have no intention of opening a restaurant at the 438 Henry Clay Ave. location; we want to continue to operate the catering/reception hall business there.”

Additionally, while I would have jumped in to help move this process along, because of the litigation involved about the usage of this property, I was advised by the city attorney’s office to wait until the legal issues between Mr. Sonnier and residents of the immediate area were worked out before engaging in any form of mediation. To date, the appropriate application to convert the catering hall into a restaurant has never been filed.

Throughout and during this stalemate my office has been working to resolve all of the main sources of confusion with the issue. They are:

Lack of Consistency Between Occupational Codes Used by the Department of Revenue and Permitted Uses Listed in the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO): This long-standing inconsistency was the primary source of confusion because “catering business” and “reception halls” are listed uses in the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) but these categories are not Commodity Codes of Occupational Licenses issued by the Department of Revenue. Because of this discrepancy, my office has brought experts from the Departments of City Planning, Safety & Permits and Finance together with the Mayor’s Office of Technology to speed up the effort to create a system that puts all of this licensing on one page as well as eliminate the inconsistencies in classification that result from the use of a paper-based system in the Department of Revenue.

Lack of Connectivity and Sharing of Information Between the Departments that Issue Both the Occupational and Revenue Licenses: Again, because of this long-standing problem, my office has brought experts from City Planning, Safety & Permits and Finance together with the Mayor’s Office of Technology to ramp up the effort to create a system that put all of this licensing on one page as well as eliminate the inconsistencies in classification that result from the use of a paper-based system in revenue.

No definition of Catering/Reception Hall in Article 2.2 “Definitions” Section of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance or “CZO”: My staff performed exhaustive best-practices research on how other city’s define this use, and I am introducing a motion at tomorrow’s (4/5/07) City Council meeting to schedule a public hearing to define this use, amend Article 2.2, and consider amending article 13.6 of CZO which covers non-conforming use.

I am very much pro-economic development and will continue my efforts to encourage it and to use our economic development resources more effectively.

Sincerely,
Shelley


A REPLY:
To Shelley Midura, New Orleans City Council, District A

Ms. Midura,

It is unfortunate that your office has released a statement mis-informing constituents of District A in regards to "Gabrielle's" (sp.?). We, as the owners of the business at 438 Henry Clay Ave. known as Gabrielle, are not trying to "strong arm" you into any kind of "backroom" deal or have we ever tried. We are not presently in any litigation with the city of New Orleans or any of our neighbors. Howell Crosby has repeatedly told you this, but you choose to ignore it and use this as your excuse as to why you did not get involved. You made it very clear to us on our one and only meeting on July 26, 2006, that you did not want to be involved in this "political issue" as you put it. We are now realizing what you meant by that.
The reputation of our business has been damaged enough by the degrading neighborhood yard signs accusing us (the owners) of breaking the law. We do not have an attorney with regards to this matter and would prefer not to hire one and seek litigation.
Our goal all along has been to recover two injured Orleans Parish businesses (Sonnier, Inc. and The Uptowner, Inc.) legally and not violate the law. That is why we sought your help.

Greg and Mary Sonnier
The Uptowner, Inc. dba Gabrielle
438 Henry Clay Ave.
NOLA 70118