Council members look at looser rules to attract more bars

"For bars, the city currently requires businesses selling alcohol to have at least half of their revenue come from food sales. But members of the Retail Committee said they'd be open to allowing pure bars and were surprised that such a ban existed. "We have to try to balance having evening vitality, including for younger people, without having it be an over-the-top scene in our down-town," Councilman Pat Burt said at the Retail Committee meeting Thursday (Jan. 22)."

"Burt questioned how The Rose & Crown at 547 Emerson St. follows the city's rules. "Maybe I've had a snack there," he said. Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims said Bar Underdog at 299 California Ave. also looks like a bar with snacks. "I don't want it to go away, because I hear good things about it," she said. Councilman Keith Reckdahl also said he was open to having bars. "I don't understand how we have concerns that a bar would have rowdy patrons, but if we serve nachos those issues go away," he said at the meeting."

"On cat cafes, the city ran into some confusion when Mini Cat Town opened a pop-up at the Stanford Shopping Center where customers could come in, play with cats and potentially adopt them. The city threatened to shut down Mini Cat Town because the operation was considered "kennel and boarding" and not a retail pet store, according to code enforcement officers. The city ended up backing down, and Mini Cat Town reopened in August at 429 California Ave."

Palo Alto is working to relax permitting rules to encourage bars, cat cafes, medical spas and larger gyms to open in downtown and on California Avenue. The city currently requires alcohol-selling businesses to have at least half their revenue from food, a restriction Retail Committee members said they would consider changing to allow pure bars. Council members questioned enforcement consistency given venues that resemble bars with snacks and open-container allowances on California Avenue. A pop-up cat cafe, Mini Cat Town, was briefly threatened with shutdown as "kennel and boarding" rather than retail but later reopened at 429 California Ave.

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