After more than a year of failed negotiations with two-high profile community groups, Richard D'Souza's vision of opening a Remington restaurant featuring a gluten free menu is in peril.
D'Souza failed to reach an agreement over operating hours for his restaurant and subsequently lost a bid to serve alcohol there when the city liquor board sided with residents' protests last week. Some fear noise and traffic problems in the mostly residential area if the place is allowed to close at 2 a.m.
Despite the setback, D'Souza said he will again approach those residents and community associations who spoke out against his restaurant to the liquor board — willing this time to adjust the hours if he is allowed to serve alcohol.
"I think pursuing this is still worth it," D'Souza said from his bakery Friday. "I have already run a successful business here, and I want to do a place now that is upscale."
D'Souza's idea remains a relatively novel one.
He and his wife opened the bakery last fall, and the business in the 100 block of 27th St. is now becoming a popular spot praised even by D'Souza's critics for its friendliness and gluten-free deserts. D'Souza's wife suffers from celiac disease, a digestive disorder that damages the small intestine and is marked by an inability to process gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
With a solid customer base, D'Souza decided to expand to the property next door, formerly Two Sisters restaurant, which went out of business in May 2008.
The menu would include gluten-free dishes on its menu of American offerings, would employ about 15 people and feature a fully stocked bar. But D'Souza clashed with neighbors over the hours.
D'Souza wanted to close at midnight during the week and 2 a.m. on weekends; the Charles Village Civic Association wanted last call to be two hours earlier. Joan Floyd of the Remington Neighborhood Alliance said her group did not want a restaurant that served alcohol at all.
The sides met face-to-face four times in the past two months to try and come up with an agreement but failed. After the liquor board's decision, D'Souza said he wanted to approach the groups, this time with closing times of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. He said will continue to stress that his place will not market to college students and will hire security to ensure that customers leave peacefully.
D'Souza added that closing earlier than that would be a concession that puts his business at a disadvantage with bars along Howard Street just a few blocks away.
"If my competition has a license until 2 a.m., don't I need an even chance to compete? If it's fair that everybody has a license until 2 a.m., so should I," D'Souza said.
Liquor board chairman Stephan Fogleman said the board would be open to revisiting the case if the community signs off on a revised D'Souza plan. But he stood by the decision, saying D'Souza put the board in an all-or-nothing scenario by not compromising to lesser hours.
Fogleman said the board struggled with the decision, strongly weighing the testimony of several residents who live on the block, all of whom said they feared parking and noise problems if the place remained open until 2 a.m.
"I have some qualms, concerns about denying a good business operator the opportunity to grow his business," Fogleman said. "But it's the community who made the decision for us. If there was no community opposition, we would not have even been talking about this case."
D'Souza has his share of believers. Five residents testified on his behalf, and he has support from the Greater Remington Improvement Association. But that group focuses more on the economic impact of businesses in the community.
Steve Santillan lives directly across the street from the bakery, and he said most of his neighbors support D'Souza. "We were all rooting for him," Santillan said.
But Floyd said her 10-year-old association has several members who have lived in the neighborhood for 30 years, and they can remember when bars at that spot disrupted the community.
Five years ago, the property was a karaoke bar. "It had its day. Now let it be. Let that be the end of it," Floyd said.
D'Souza acknowledged that he doesn't expect much give from Floyd's organization but is hoping he can come to a compromise on the new times with Charles Village. Sharon Guida, president of the Charles Village Civic Association, said, "If he wants to reach out, he has my number."
D'Souza said he could not make a profit running the restaurant without selling alcohol.
"We've done the numbers," he said, "and it's not worth it."
brent.jones@baltsun.com