Kip Pharis at Tuesday's Council Meeting
10/27/11
by Perry Miller
The Brookings City Council votes to extend the BraVo's liquor license
for one year for $2,500.
The license would have expired today. The Council granted an earlier
extension since BraVo's was only supposed to have the license until
restaurant-only licenses became available. That happened in September.
However, BraVo's owner Kip Pharis says the $100,000 fee for the
restaurant licenses is too high, far higher than anyone expected when
BraVo's was given the temporary license in 2008.
Pharis says BraVo's has done everything they said they would, created
an upscale atmosphere, a finer menu, a finer service and created BraVo's
to be a destination.
Mayor Tim Reed says they knew there would be a cost for the restaurant-only
licenses but they didn't think it would be that high. He said he doesn't see
penalizing someone who has already invested in Brookings. He believes
the price should be set at $25,000.
A motion to grant BraVo's the standard license for $25,000 failed on a 2-4 vote.
Only Reed and Tom Bezdichek voted in favor of the idea.
They then went with the one-year-extension, which was suggested by council
member John Kubal. He said it would buy Pharis more time and that is all the
council can offer.
The one-year-extension passed five-one with Keith Corbett voting "no."
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