Evening Star Cafe on Mt. Vernon Avenue is seeking the addition of 30 new outdoor seats in the patio area next to Planet Wine.
The Alexandria Planning Commission will consider the restaurant’s application for the increased seating on Oct. 2.
Evening Star Cafe and Planet Wine, both under the Neighborhood Restaurant Group umbrella, may install a retractable canopy or other shelter over the proposed new outdoor patio. Evening Star currently has 20 outdoor seats on the south side of the building.
NRG purchased the patio and the two buildings next to Planet Wine in 2011.
The addition of 30 seats on the north side would increase the total number at the restaurant and attached lounges to 150. When Planet Wine hosts a special tasting or dinner, the total number of seats for the two establishments is to remain at 150.
The application includes a requested parking reduction of 13 spaces.
City staff recommends approval of the permit with the reduction of required parking spaces.
Noting parking at the corner of E. Howell and Mt. Vernon avenues “can be tight at certain times, such as Saturdays,” the parking need at the location “is moderated by the fact that the majority of the parking reduction request is for outdoor seats that will be seasonal,” according to a report from Nathan Randall of the city’s Department of Planning and Zoning.
Randall also noted that like many restaurants in Del Ray, some customers will walk to the restaurant. The upcoming Del Ray/Arlandria Trolley could also help mitigate parking issues, Randall wrote.
I respectfully disagree re the comments on parking. There is pretty ample parking on Mt. Vernon Avenue, and this end of the Ave is not as dense as down the street. I don't think anyone that is involved in planning or the like would ever refer to an area of two City blocks with three restaurants on it as "dense." (Thai Peppers, a tiny restaurant, Evening Star and La Strada/Osteria). Del Ray Cafe is on a side street with plenty of off street parking. The next restaurant is three blocks North (Windsor, Custis, and then Del Ray where the Pizzeria is). How is that dense? The recent parking study published by the City concluded there are no serious parking issues on the Ave. Outdoor dining is a fabulous addition to any street front that hopes to maintain the "Main Street" feel, and this change will help to bring that about. I say go for it.
From the City staff's report on the SUP request: "The applicant has requested in this application a reduction for the balance of its parking requirement (13 spaces), which combines the existing five-space parking deficit created by the loss of parking at the former ReMax site and the requirement for the new outdoor seats (eight spaces)." Under Evening Star's existing SUP, they are required to supplement their 'insufficient' on-site parking with off-site parking. In the past, they apparently contracted with ReMax to provide those. That contract expired and has not been replaced. Evening Star is thus petitioning to eliminate the requirement for those 5 off-site parking spaces. In addition, they are petitioning for a waiver to the 8-space parking requirement due to the 30 new outdoor seats. Link to the SUP report: http://alexandria.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1192755&GUID=6B11D599-1B4B-4E6D-93DA-80ACDF40B28A&Options=&Search=
In my comment above, I only wanted to clarify that "the reduction of spaces" does not mean eliminating existing spaces on the street or whatever. I oftentimes receive emails from readers asking if "a requested parking reduction" is the actual elimination of parking spaces on Mt. Vernon Avenue or a side street. People ask if they're turning the spots into a loading zone or putting the outdoor seating where those parking spaces were. I received a few emails asking similar questions about this story. I understand your point. I ultimately thought the best way to phrase it was to say the restaurant is requesting to operate with 150 seats with a reduction of 13 required spaces.
To add to your comment, something I didn't spell out is that Evening Star is not requesting to take away any 'existing' parking spaces. They are asking for the 'requirement' to provide 5 off-site parking spaces to be eliminated. But they are not currently meeting that requirement, so as of now the 5 off-site Evening Star spaces are not 'existing'. On a tangent, I don't get the loading zone in front of UPS and Pork Barrel BBQ. Seems like there are always cars parked in it, and I've seen the UPS truck consequently double-parked blocking the southbound travel lane.
No, no one in planning would consider that section of Del Ray restaurant-dense, but I do. There is limited off-street parking for Evening Star, La Strada, Osteria, and Artfully Chocolate. Patrons park on Mt. Vernon Ave and on the side streets. If I'm not mistaken the recent parking study did identify sections of Del Ray where parking demand was more intense and the section around Howell Avenue was one of them. If you look at the full area of the study which stretched as far south as GW Middle School and you average out the demand across the entire avenue, then yes, there were no serious parking issues. However, who is going to park down by the middle school and walk all the way up the avenue to go to a restaurant? If there are no serious parking issues on the avenue, then we can work to reserve parking on the side streets to residents and their guests.
I was advised by an enforcement officer to call at 11:30 in the morning so that the cars could be observed by two different shifts of enforcement officers. Nice try, but I am at work at that time of day. Arriving home with no place to park, as the commuters sit un-ticketed is frustrating.
On the overall topic of parking, having dealt with this issue in Old Town for years for La Bergerie, the outside consultants rarely have a real grasp on demand and even consider Old Town to have sufficient parking!
- On popular dining out evenings (latter half of the work week, weekend), I never get a parking spot for my compact car in front of our house, but that's OK. - Lately though, I've noticed that we often have to park further and further from our home. Not sure if this is because of Del Ray Cafe patrons or an increase in patronage at Evening Star or something else. - The people who tend to park on our block on Howell or Clyde seem more often than not to be headed to or from the Evening Star or the Evening Star bar/lounge - Plenty of times I've noticed space in the Evening Star parking lot, but patrons still parking on Howell. I don't know if this is because the patrons are not aware of the parking lot or they just prefer street parking because they fear being parked in the Evening Star lot - I would oppose permit parking on our street unless residents are also given an annual guest parking pass they can give to their own overnight visitors, but I doubt Alexandria would do this. - Evening Star's expansion raises other concerns about its impact on the East Howell: noise from patrons on their way back to their cars late at night; delivery trucks and patrons sideswiping resident's parked cars (just replaced our own driver's side mirror)
That being said – I am a huge supporter of the businesses on our street. We try to only walk – even down to Mancini’s (just as far as walking from GW to the Star) &I think we as a community need to do what we can to make sure the businesses we have continue to be successful. If you’ve tried to eat out between 6:30-7:30 p.m. on a general week night you know there is definitely a need for more seating/tables as it is impossible to walk in or wait less than 15 minutes at any of the places on the avenue. I’m relatively “new” to the neighborhood having only been around since 1998 – but the changes on the Avenue over those 14 years have been amazing…I certainly don’t want to go back to what we had before. Maybe it is time for the city to install meters on Mt. Vernon, and timed parking on the side streets including perhaps a zone sticker as they have in Old Town.
http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/gis/info/ResParkingDistricts.pdf If her block is not within an existing parking district, then I believe the City would have to create a new parking district by amending the City code or something - which would be much more onerous. Also, if the City was just to extend Parking District 6 north into more of Del Ray, the parking is only restricted to 3 hours between 8am-5pm. So it would have no effect on evening or weekend restaurant parking. If a parking district was created or extended, Guest (24hr) passes are now pretty easy to obtain. The City literally has an App for that so it can be done online. Overview of Parking District Restrictions http://alexandriava.gov/index_quicklinks.aspx?id=56802