Entrepreneur battles city's bureaucracy

Sarasota restaurateur Christian Hershman expected some hassles when he embarked on a $500,000 expansion project at State Street Eating House in downtown Sarasota.

The plan: Add a liquor store next door to the popular urban-chic restaurant in empty space owned by Hershman's landlords and business partners, Dr. Kirk and Chris Voelker. The expansion would connect the main restaurant and offer an old-school, men-centric oasis accompanied by a barber and shoeshine business.

But even Hershman, who has run businesses in town for 17 years, was stunned by how difficult it was to navigate the powers at Sarasota City Hall. The delays, which he says dragged on almost a year, ranged from multiple confusing zoning codes to a near expansion-killer: A request, specifically a motion for a public hearing, that Hershman's liquor store revenues be capped at 25% of Eating House's total sales. (That motion failed.)

“It's a bit of a dysfunctional bureaucracy,” Hershman tells Coffee Talk. “I don't think it's malicious or anti-growth, but it seems like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.”

Hershman says he signed several legal proffers for city hall about what the expansion will be and won't be. The store will sell liquor, but it won't sell it in smaller-sized bottles that some officials say are a magnet for homeless people. It can be a gathering place, and a spot for people to relax while they wait for a table at the Eating House. But Hershman can't turn it into a nightclub.

Hershman called those offers olive branches, but he says the revenue-cap request was “completely unacceptable.”

City Commissioner Susan Chapman, who made the request for the hearing on the revenue cap at a public meeting in September, says she followed the definition of a nightclub under the city charter. She denies the city tried to block Hershman's expansion, or do anything to make it complicated or challenging. Says Chapman: “It seems like anybody who has to go through the regulatory process complains.”

With holdups behind him and permits in hand, Hershman now looks forward to opening the liquor store. The design includes a custom-made bar counter from Savannah, Ga. and the inventory consists of 150-200 wine labels, says Hershman, plus a variety of craft liquors. Hershman also plans to have a “tricked-out” golf cart for making liquor deliveries to downtown condos.

These plans fit into Hershman's vision of a place where conversation and a relaxed pace take priority over Wi-Fi and urgency. “This isn't really an expansion of the restaurant,” Hershman says, “but an extension of what we are.”