The owner of a Mineola bar looking to expand outside is facing opposition from local residents.
Vincent Minutella, owner of Black Sheep Ale House, a tavern that specializes in craft beer located at 78 Second St., presented his plan to add a dining area and beer garden to the existing bar at Wednesday’s meeting of the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees.
“Being that we’re focussed in beer, a beer garden is a natural extension,” said Minutella, a Garden City South resident. “And it’s something that we think … will also be good for the community. It will be something cool for us to have because we don’t have anything like that.”
But some neighbors of the Black Sheep Ale House don’t agree.
Five residents from bordering streets attended the meeting said the bar already causes a disturbance, and said the added beer garden would be an even bigger nuisance.
Terence Hale, who live on Roslyn Road, said he thinks the beer garden is a great idea – but not in his backyard.
Hale said he’s had beer bottles and glasses left on his lawn.
“I’ve got a whole set of glasses from your bar,” Hale said.
Others, like Tammy Luo said she’s found empty cases of beer on her lawn.
Minutella said the Black Sheep Ale House is likely not to blame.
“We don’t sell cases of beer, if someone bought a case of beer and left it by your house they bought it at 7-Eleven or somewhere. We don’t sell beer to go,” Minutella said. “Bottles of beer from my place come from Belgium.”
Minutella added that this was the first time he’s heard about these issues from residents. He said that he is accommodating to the public’s wishes, and in the past cancelled a popular series of open mic nights because residents complained about the noise.
While explaining his vision for the beer garden, Minutella said he isn’t looking to create a “party type of atmosphere.”
Minutella said his goal is to create a park-like, al fresco dining area, where customers can “sit amongst the trees, sit amongst picnic benches,” and enjoy beer and food.
“Our idea with food is to produce food that will elevate the beer, and beer that will elevate the food,” Minutella said. “They’re meant to go hand in hand.”
As of now the bar is open every night until 4 a.m. Minutella said the beer garden would most likely be open till 11 p.m. on weeknights, and 2 a.m. on weekends.
Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said if “you close a beer garden down at 11 o’clock, you might have a riot on your hands.”
Bob Miller, Minutella’s partner, doesn’t think that’s likely. Miller said as of now patrons of the bar are “good at doing what we ask.” If anyone seems to be lingering outside or speaking loudly, Miller said, he asks them to stop and they generally do.
“The core that we have at the bar runs 25-35,” Miller said. “We do have our 21-year-olds that come in, but those that come in aren’t looking for beer pong and jello shots.”
While rowdy bars have a place in the world, Miller said, that isn’t what he and Minutella are looking to create. They simply want to expand what they’ve been doing for almost seven years and add food, Miller said.
Strauss said there have been issues with outdoor eating areas in the village in the past. His priority is to prevent it before it starts, and make sure the residents living in that area “are not trampled on,” he said.
On nice nights when residents keep their windows open, Strauss said, conversations form the beer garden could prevent nearby locals from sleeping.
“You have this beer garden in the back that was presented as all flowery and nice, now it’s a mess,” Strauss said. “I need to understand how you would look to prevent that from happening if you could and I’m not sure you can.”
In the current design, the noise from the beer garden is directed out of an archway facing Old Country Road, Minutella said. The entire beer garden is surrounded by six-foot walls, and “since sound needs somewhere to go,” Minutella said, he believed that would be the best direction to send it as opposed to directing it toward their neighbors to the back.
Residents also said parking from the bar is an issue. There is a municipal lot across the street from the bar, but residents said customers of the bar still park by their house. The expansion of the beer garden would cause even more bar customers to park on their street, according to residents.
Minutella said he doesn’t understand why his customers are not using the lot, but added that recently most of his customers use ride-sharing apps, such as Uber, to get to and from the bar.
It was always Minutella’s intention to serve food at the bar back when he bought it as O’Donnell’s Pub in 2010, he said.
Due to updated kitchen codes, he said he realized a kitchen would “eat up so much of the dining area there would be nowhere to serve customers.”
Since then he’s purchased the building and the small white house next door, he said. By knocking down the house he will have the space to create the beer garden and dining area, he said.
Minutella wants to keep the two separate in design and feel, he said. He plans on changing the bar as little as possible and creating a passthrough to the dining area that will create a “Yin and Yang” effect – the dining area will be the feminine to the bar’s masculine, he said.
Members of the board said they don’t have an issue with the plan in theory, but decided to hold off until a more specific plan is presented that will address issues that were raised, such as parking and noise disturbances to surrounding residents.
The board plans on reviewing the proposal again in January if Minutella and his team are ready to present at that time.
During the meeting the board also heard from Jersey Qiu, of Jericho, who is looking to create a restaurant inside the existing Super Fl supermarket located at 52 Jericho Turnpike.
Members of the board said there were issues with the drawing of the plans. Qui’s architect was not present at the meeting to address the concerns.
The board tabled Qui’s plan and plans on reviewing Qui’s proposal in January, as well, with the recommendation that the designs are updated and his architect is present.
