In a rare rebuke that reflects a history of complaints about the business, the Flagler Beach City Commission denied an outdoor entertainment permit to Cajun Beach Boil and Sushi, the restaurant on State Road A1A at South 12th Street, after the business flouted a city ordinance.
“It was made very clear to him that he could not even have a radio there,” Penny Overstreet, the city clerk, said of Patrick McKinney, the businessowner who filed the application for the permit. When a resident told her Cajun Beach was playing music anyway, without a permit, she sent the police. Flagler Broadcasting’s Kix Country 98.7 was playing music in a promotional event.
“They were still still playing music when I was on my way here. I know that,” Commissioner Eric Cooley said at last week’s commission meeting, when the commission voted to deny. He cited the restaurant’s absence of plans to mitigate sound issues. “Also, I can’t approve a business that is currently, today, out of compliance with the sound ordinance, because they don’t have a permanent and they’re playing music. And they were playing music after they were told by our police to stop playing music.”
The owner explained tried to explain: “About a month and a half ago, I booked a radio thing for a hot-dogging contest and gumbo, so it was not supposed to be a radio outside,” he said. “They came there today. They had a radio. They put it on my stage. When I saw it, I said No, you can’t do that. You got to move that, because it was not really loud. It was just playing.” He had them move the radio to the front of the building, facing the ocean, where people could not have heard it unless they were right in front of the building. He still played music at the bar. “We’re the quietest restaurant on the beach that has music. We always end our music early, whenever we can,” McKinney said.
“We never had a legitimate complaint from someone calling officers,” he said. The city had in fact documented–and included in city commissioners’ background on the item–five such complaints filed about the restaurant between last October and last May, though none led to an actual citation. One such complaint filed by the owner of the nearby Golden Magnolia motel charged that his business was losing guests because of the loud music. On another occasion, Cajun Beach staffers “stated that the neighbors have called on them multiple times and they have not done anything wrong,” an incident report states, “that they are considering filing a harassment report. I requested that they lower the music to curb any possible unwanted attention.”
The complaints continued.
At one of Commission Chair Scott Spradley’s weekly town halls at his law office last July, Gail Wadsworth, the former clerk of court and a Flagler Beach resident, described how “that entity drives our neighborhood crazy” and was allegedly driving Golden Magnolia out of business.
Cajun Beach has a peculiar history. It was owned by a different majority owner under that name, but that business filed for bankruptcy–a bankruptcy Spradley handled. The business shut down, the bankruptcy was resolved. The Cajun Beach opened again under a new owner, who had been a minority partner under the previous arrangement. (Spradley abstained from last week’s vote, and passed the gavel to James Sherman, who chaired that portion of the meeting). The first version of Cajun Beach had an outdoor entertainment permit. But it was not transferrable.
The city’s planning board had recommended approval of the application for a permit in a 3-2 vote in October. The applicant agreed to install a permanent sound meter, and to end all live entertainment after 9:30 p.m. But the split vote at that level, for what should have been a routine measure, was also a sign of discomfort about the business–discomfort some planning board members had been hearing about, as had commissioners.
“I’ve been before this board several times fighting for my right, for the quiet enjoyment of my home,” Brenda Montgomery, a 20-year resident of Flagler Beach (she lives on South 11th), told commissioners. “We pay over $12,000 in property taxes, more than what the owner of Cajun Beach pays. My hope is that this nightmare will end tonight, and that you will protect my home and my neighbors.” (In fact, the Cajun Beach property has always paid more in taxes than Montgomery’s, if not by much in the last three years. Neither property is homesteaded.) She described the effects of the music on her husband’s health, her multiple complaints to police, and police’s lack of proper decibel readers.
The previous owner of the White Orchid said that business has been playing music for 35 years without generating a single noise citation. “That’s an example of a respectful business that works well in our neighborhood,” she said.
Joseph Aspesi, McKinney’s partner, was among those speaking in support of the permit. “We’re trying to make this place work. We’re facing one hurdle after the next, and we’re trying our best,” he said. “We’re putting a lot of work into this, and we don’t need any more disruptions and setbacks.” One patron who described going to several Flagler Beach restaurants where she doesn’t feel safe going by herself said she feels safe at Cajun.
“Last time I was here, they said that the restaurant, the hotels and the restaurants, are not doing well because of Cajun,” she said. “That is a fabricated lie, because the hotel next door, people who stay in there come over and they have a good time, they eat, they socialize.” She accused the city if “racially profiling” the Cajun and placing it under restrictions other restaurants don’t face. A Cajun neighbor who lives parallel to the business on South Daytona Avenue said she never recalled hearing music until she would walk close to the business.
Commissioner Jane Mealy motioned to deny the permit. The business owner was invited to re-apply in the future.
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