Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises

The meeting is being held in hybrid format. Members of the public who wish to testify may testify in person or via Zoom. Members of the public wishing to testify remotely may register by visiting the New York City Council website at www.council.nyc.gov/landuse to sign up. Or for those of you here in person, please see one of the sergeants at arms to prepare a sub— to prepare and submit a speaker card.

Members of the public may also view a livestream broadcast of this meeting at the council website. When you are called to testify before the subcommittee, if you are joining us remotely, you will remain muted until recognized by myself to speak. When you are recognized, your microphone will be unmuted. We will limit public testimony to 2 minutes per witness.

If you have additional testimony that you would like to submit, To the subcommittee, you would like the subcommittee to consider, or if you have written testimony that you would like to submit instead of appearing in person, please email it to landuse testimony at council dot nyc dot gov. Written testimony may be submitted up to three days after the hearing is closed.

Please indicate the LU number and project name in the subject line of your email. We request that witnesses joining us remotely remain in the meeting until excused by the chair, as council members may have questions. Lastly, for everyone attending. attending today's meeting, this is a government proceeding and decorum must be observed at all times. Members of the public are asked not to speak during the meeting unless you are testifying.

The witness table is reserved for people who are called to testify, and no video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant-at-arms for inclusion in the hearing record. Thank you.

I will now open the public hearing on LU-141 relating to the sidewalk cafe application filed by Tero de Esquina, NYC Corp., in Councilmember Thomas Henry's district. Applicant is seeking to place 4 tables with attached bench seating outside the front of its restaurant, which is located in Corona, Queens.

For anyone wishing to testify regarding this proposal remotely, if you have not already done so, you must register online by visiting the council's website at council.nyc.gov/landuse. For anyone with us in person, please see one of the sergeant-at-arms to submit a speaker card. If you would prefer to submit written testimony, you can always do so by emailing it to landuse testimony at council.nyc.gov.

Councilmember Thomas Henry does not have remarks at this time. I will now call the applicant panel for this proposal, which consists of Christy Han Zuluwanga. Sorry if I butchered your name. Council, could you please administer the oath? Hello, can you hear me? Yes, good morning. Good morning, how are you? Hopefully you're not currently moving because I'm going to ask you to raise your right hand and state your name for the record.

Can you state your name for the record? Christian Zuluaga. Okay. Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in your testimony this morning and in response to councilmember questions? Yes, I do. Thank you. You may make your statement. Yes, I'm going to tell the absolute truth, the statements being the absolute truth. No, no.

Thank you. You can lower your hand and you've done— You've already sworn. Do you have anything to— testimony that you would like to share with us today?

Well, basically, yes. So we had to submit the application to be able to accommodate some seating area around our location. Our café is a restaurant bar concept. It's a family joinable place where we offer and sell food, beverage, liquor, and different type of products within a restaurant area. So the concept of the cafe tables outside exterior side of the building will just accommodate our business operation hours.

And, um, as I say, the, the— that's pretty much it. Thank you.

I don't have any questions for the applicant. I will now recognize Council Member Thomas-Henry for questions. Good afternoon— good morning. How are you doing? Um, my first question is in regards to just getting clarity on the entity that Will be managing this outside dining because there is I have Tiro de Esquina and then DBA Calle Tejadas, and the way that business is set up, it appears that there's almost like two or three different entities, or like what part of the business do you control and operate that will be?

managing the cafe? Okay, so basically I'll tell you a little story about the business. So we start the corporation as Cali Taharas 2 Corp. The concept of the cafe was start selling some bakery concepts and expanding the business on the bakery side. Unfortunately, So we then switched the corporation name to Tiro de Esquina NYC Corp, as changing the concept of the restaurant to promote this past World Cup, promoting to the football, the soccer, the sports concept.

So we began to change the menu. Azkali Tijeras, but then the corporation name changed to Tiro de Esquina. So that's probably why the confusion or the name is getting mixed up together. Okay, thank you. And what are the current hours of operation? Current hours of operation, we are, we are Open from 11:00 AM, 12 noon to 12 midnight.

We are closed on Mondays. But every Tuesday to Sunday, we are open from noon to midnight. Thank you. Pretty much. Is it safe to assume as a sports bar, most of the activity is indoors and folks are inside watching different sports? That is correct. We have a giant screen, like a full screen to attract people seeking to see any kind of sport.

As I say, past World Cup, We were with good amount of neighborhoods with neighbors, I'm sorry, and people coming from different places just to join and be able to see sport through the TVs or through— the main concept is just watching the sports indoors. So I guess my question in that regard is, what do you anticipate as the the patrons who would be using the outdoor dining space?

Like traditionally, some people may choose to eat outside, but since you guys are mainly a sports bar where people come to watch the games, what do you anticipate? Who will be outside? Would it be— So we have some like a soccer kind of benches, tables outside where kids go and have the opportunity to have a table. eat with their parents, but at the same time in the lower piece of the table, there's like a soccer, a small field within the table itself where they can actually play with a soccer ball by the foot.

On the table, they just eat and share food, but it's just within The table itself. It is not outside of the table. Got it. And I have seen the setup. So that would be the same setup, what you have out there now with the colorful benches and the turf would be the same setup? Or would you— That is correct.

Or is the— would you enclose it or would it continue to be set up the way it is? It will continue to be set up the way it is. Unfortunately, by when the winter comes in, we're just going to have to remove it because it's fully exposed. So otherwise it was going to be covered over snow or other exterior factors.

Okay. So we have received some— well, we did check with the local precinct and there have been some noise complaints. Have you guys made any attempt to contact the neighbors off of— on the avenue, not on 104th Street side, but the homes on the avenue to let them know? that you're interested in making? Yes. And we actually had come together with the neighbors and talked to them around it.

And especially the noise, lately complaints they had happened is because in the second floor, in the second floor there's an event room and there's some occasion where there's a Zumba class or dancing But it doesn't interfere within operational hours. We had provided them with options to fully enclose the windows, but it's just not happening as an everyday routine.

It's just events from time to time that are taking place on the second level. Do you have security? While you're open? We don't have a front security man by our operation hours, but there's actually— so there's actually like the building itself, I'm sure you had seen it. There's actually a rear side of the building that operates as a full bar, Sophia's Bar.

That has nothing to do with us. That being said, they do offer, and this is something that highly affects our business since day one, because they do a different type of operation that I don't have to tell the story or anything, but that business alone had been actually front face by our neighbors, and most neighbors in our area just confused of which business are we in.

Being that said, that our business is on the others— our business main door is on the other side of the building. But we, as being as a restaurant concept, family, openable, kids-friendly scenario, we actually haven't needed a security guard in front of the door. Okay. And does Sophia's Bar use your tables at all, ever? The outdoor seating?

No, none, none of our tables. They have a separate entrance inside the business. They totally separate from our business. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember. All right. This panel is excused. Thank you so much for making time to testify today. We appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome.

This is the last call. If there are any members of the public who wish to testify regarding this proposal remotely Please press the raise hand button now, or if you are in person, please identify yourself to one of the sergeants at arms. This is the last call. Being that there are no members of the public who wish to testify regarding LU-141 relating to the sidewalk cafe application by Tero de Escuina NYC Corp, the public hearing is now closed.

This item is laid over.

That concludes today's business. I would like to thank the members of the public, my colleagues, Subcommittee Council Land Use and Council staff and the sergeant-at-arms for participating in today's meeting. This meeting is hereby adjourned.