Los Gatos Weekly-Times

O'Shea's again appeals closure by town

By Clarence Cromwell

O'Shea's Pub and Grill owners Stan and Ellen Schwartz appealed the closure of their business to the Los Gatos Town Council July 31, stating the Planning Commission had no right to shut them down because O'Shea's is not a "stand-alone bar," as the town calls it, and it no longer remains open later than the conditional use permit allows.

Stan Schwartz alleged that neighbors and town officials aim to shut the bar down out of malice.

"There's no issues except they want me out of business," he said. "There's no reason I should be a pariah."

Schwartz said his dimly lit establishment, with a fully stocked bar and a tiny kitchen, is a restaurant--whatever the town chooses to call it.

"I don't mind being a restaurant," he said. "I have food here."

But, he says, the requirement that a full meal be served with every drink is "onerous."

The town does not have to require that he serve food, Schwartz said, and he doesn't believe they should require it.

"They can make any law they want," he said.

Schwartz scoffed at the idea that a bar should be forbidden at his location. His building is across the street from a Safeway supermarket and between a commercial center and an office building. A soundwall and a stand of trees separate the building from the houses behind it. The rear wall of O'Shea's is full of sound-deadening insulation.

In his appeal, Schwartz also pointed to the town requirements that O'Shea's has met: He canceled live music, recently shortened his business hours (when police began to check the bar every day) and required his employees to be trained in safe alcohol service by the town.

"I could take you to a thousand places like this in the Bay Area," Schwartz said. "Must I have white tablecloths?"

Planning commissioners, on the other hand, found the case to be pretty clear-cut. O'Shea's was supposed to stop operating as a bar three years ago, they concluded, and it didn't.

They noted that the Schwartzes still hadn't followed many town instructions--including shortening the hours of operation, adding landscaping and ceasing to operate as a bar--at the time the commission first considered shutting down O'Shea's.

The town council is scheduled to consider the O'Shea's appeal on Sept. 15.

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