Wrightsville Beach’s Old Causeway Drive will experience a continued renaissance when another restaurant opens in the site formerly occupied by the Olympia Restaurant.
The town’s board of aldermen voted unanimously to offer Russell Bennett of Poe’s Tavern a conditional use permit and a parking exemption to operate his limited family-friendly franchise at 212 Old Causeway Drive.
When Bennett addressed the board on Nov. 13, he said he had been searching for an ideal town to open a third location of the gourmet burger restaurant. Poe’s Tavern has two existing locations in Sullivan’s Island, S.C., and Atlantic Beach, Fla.
“We’re not a chain,” Bennett said. Before allowing the public to offer opinions, the board heard a favorable recommendation from the Wrightsville Beach Planning Board, delivered by director of planning and parks Tony Wilson.
The planning board’s recommendation came with several conditions to minimize disruption of neighboring residents on Seacrest Drive. The conditions include no outdoor seating after 10 p.m. and no amplified music outside.
The aldermen took issue with one of the conditions, which recommended no plastic curtains on the proposed outdoor patio, a stipulation put on other surrounding restaurants.
Alderwoman Lisa Weeks said permitting plastic curtains would allow the restaurant to continue to seat people outside during the cold winter months. Mayor Bill Blair agreed, adding plastic curtains could potentially buffer noise as well.
The aldermen decided to reword the condition and to allow other restaurants to use plastic curtains on outdoor areas for consistency.
“I’m glad you’re reconsidering that,” Bennett said, “because you want a business that doesn’t just service the summer crowd. We need [the covered patio] in the winter because we’re going to have people there, and they’re going to be locals.”
Poe’s Tavern was also seeking a parking exception from the board. The restaurant requires 70 off-street parking spaces and with only 20 available on site, the applicant would need an exception for 50 spaces.
The board had the option to grant an exception based on the availability of 39 public parking spaces within 400 feet of the property.
Blair pointed out, those spaces were not guaranteed to Poe’s Tavern, especially during the busy summer months. Bennett said he had run into similar issues with his existing locations, especially in Sullivan’s Island. In that case, he came to an agreement with the nearby post office, which allowed restaurant patrons to use the many available spaces in that parking lot. Bennett said he hoped to establish a similar situation in Wrightsville Beach and work with his neighboring establishments to determine if any had unused parking spaces.
The proposed restaurant is also consistent with the 2005 CAMA land use plan encouraging the development of commercial establishments providing basic goods and services to year-round residents and visitors.
During a public hearing following Bennett’s presentation, Blair invited members of the public to offer opinions. When nobody came forward to speak, Mayor Pro Tem Darryl Mills mentioned a few comments he received from residents on Seacrest Drive, who had concerns about the proximity of the restaurant to their homes.
Bennett assured board members he was accustomed to managing restaurants in small beach communities. In fact, he said, Sullivan’s Island is a much more confined residential community than Wrightsville Beach; it only has a two-block commercial district and is 90 percent primary residences.
A 10-foot-high buffer wall at the south end of the patio would mitigate noise for residences on Seacrest Drive, he added, and recycling and dumping of bottles would be restricted to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Furthermore, he said, the restaurant would not seat any patrons outdoors after 10 p.m. and would stop serving altogether at midnight.
“I appreciate your consideration for the local folk,” Mayor Blair said. “I say we all jump off a cliff together and hope it all works. I think it’s a great idea.”
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