Pain D’Avignon Granted Liquor License Pledges To Work With Abutters To Control Parking

CHATHAM – The newly opened Pain D’Avignon restaurant, occupying the former Chatham Bakery site on Crowell Road, will soon have the ability to serve beer and wine. While some neighborhood residents expressed concern about traffic and the shortage of parking, the owners of the restaurant have pledged to work closely with neighbors to address any problems, and the select board granted the annual beer and wine license last week.

Attorney Bill Riley, representing the restaurant, said it will be offering lunch and dinner menus in addition to the bakery and coffee items it currently serves.

“To be profitable, they believe they need a beer and wine license so that people can have a glass of wine or glass of beer with their dinners and lunch,” he said. Riley said the restaurant has 18 seats indoors and has the number of parking spaces required by the town for that capacity. Pain D’Avignon has a strong reputation from its business in Hyannis, and “I believe they’ll be a good corporate citizen here in Chatham,” he said.

“My track record in Hyannis is stellar. We’ll just be adults serving adults in a classy manner,” restaurant Chief Operating Officer Mario Mariani said. Pain D’Avignon is excited about the opportunity to open a neighborhood restaurant here and expects to start slowly. “We’re not a 50-seat restaurant that’s asking for 100,” he said. The request is for permission to serve beer and wine indoors, though eventually the business will likely seek authorization to serve on their outdoor patio, Riley noted.

While the property is zoned for general business, “it is clearly a neighborhood,” neighbor Ann Hession said. Because of its proximity to houses on Collins Lane and across the street, and given its limited parking, the location is not ideal for a busy restaurant, she said. Pain D’Avignon knew the property’s limitations and the fact that it had no liquor license before they moved in, Hession noted. “And now they’re saying to turn a profit, they have to have that.”

Barry Desilets of North Chatham said small restaurants outside of the downtown area are beneficial, and a French restaurant should be able to serve wine. “These little neighborhood places are really helping to get a lot of traffic out of downtown for restaurants, and I think everybody loves it,” he said.

Brian Tobin, who said he represents neighbor Glen Doherty, argued that Pain D’Avignon does not have enough permitted parking spaces for the 26 seats he counted inside the restaurant. He said the new business represents an expanded use of the property and should be subject to a new site plan review by the planning board. Tobin urged the select board not to grant the liquor license until such a review is conducted.

Riley said the restaurant has sufficient parking for the time being, and owners would be arranging for off-site valet parking in the future if the need for parking increases.

“For 20 years we’ve been a good neighbor,” said Chris Luciano, general manager of Nickerson Funeral Home, whose parking lot is often used by visitors to the bakery. “We look the other way. The trouble is, when we try to run services, we can’t,” he said. He praised Mariani for hiring the valet service, but said it is not succeeding in controlling parking in a way that guarantees access to the funeral home. While the funeral home has been temporarily closed for the last two months, it will be reopening soon and conflicts can be expected, Luciano said.

“I want everybody to be successful, but it’s becoming overwhelming to me and my team,” he said. “It’s not fair to the folks who are trying to pay their respects to their loved ones.”

Parking has been a problem before at the bakery, said Kristin Muller of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and Merchants’ Association. “I don’t know how that directly correlates to this question about their liquor license,” she said. “Alcohol or no alcohol, parking’s still going to be a problem.” It can be challenging to get a dinner reservation in Chatham in the summer, she added. “If we have a restaurant that is willing to serve us food, we should be grateful for that.”

The select board agreed that the parking shortage is a separate issue from the request for a beer and wine license, and voted unanimously to grant that license.

“If things get rowdy, which I would not expect of this restaurant, this license is reviewed annually,” and can be revoked before that time, select board member Cory Metters said.