If a sellout isn't enough measure of success for the inaugural Taste of Fall Wine Walk in downtown Batavia, the obvious fun all the guests and business owners were having Saturday evening, certainly sealed the deal.
More pictures after the jump (you won't see a frown or a scowl in the bunch!):
Vic Marchese has achieved something few small business owners ever get to claim -- in just five-and-a-half years after opening Main St. Pizza Company, he now owns the building.
"I'm just shocked by how much business we're doing," Marchese said. "It's good. It really is. I'm thankful. I'm thankful to the guy upstairs, I guess."
The success has meant, however, that the original Main St. Pizza space at 206 E. Main St., Batavia, has gotten crowded. Marchese said he needs to expand. He certainly needs to expand the kitchen, he said, but he would also like more seating area.
"It's crazy, but on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, I'll have 20 or 30 people standing out there," Marchese said.
Marchese has thought about putting in a dining room upstairs, but said it would be more cost effective to open up a dining area in the basement. He would also like to acquire space in front of the building from the city and put in a deck or patio for diners.
Marchese didn't make the building purchase on his own. His nephew, Paul Marchese, owner of Marchese Computers on Ellicott Street, is co-owner of the building.
The acquisition comes just in time for Vic to celebrate National Pizza Month in October, a promotion he's getting fully behind, with one lucky customer becoming eligible to win a big screen TV.
Marchese said he loves food, pizza, especially the pizza business. He's been at it for more than 35 years. He worked 20 years in somebody else's pizza shop, then ran Vic's Doghouse on Park Road for nine years, and now Main St. Pizza.
"I really love what I do," Vic said.
Ken Mistler, whose downtown building ownership dropped from 10 properties to nine with the sale, said it was Vic's idea and he supported it because he believes Marchese will be a responsible downtown landlord. Mistler noted that if a poor owner got a hold of a building such as the one Vic bought, it could bring down his own property values.
"I was glad to sell it to him because I'm sure he's going to take care of the building," Mistler said. "He will be an asset as a landlord downtown."
I just noticed that after years of the Latina's signs staying up on the vacant Ellicott Street market, the signs are now gone.
While in some cases, the city could cite a property owner for old business signs, City Manager Jason Molino said he doesn't think the signs came down because of any city action. So perhaps Latina's, after a summer of bad publicity over seagulls on the building, finally asked that the signs be taken down.
Meanwhile, owner Tom Lewin appeared in City Court last week. Given that the building is now cleaned up, the charges against Lewin could be dismissed in six months if there are no more violations. (via WIVB)
Downtown business owners were on Main Street this morning decorating the sidewalks for fall, putting out hay bales and pumpkins, cornstalks and mums.
Above, Carrie Lawrence from Valle Jewelers delivers mums for planting in front of The Daily Grind.
The merchants will host a wine walk Oct. 2. For more information, click here.
Ken Mistler has hung his giant American flag from the Carr's building for 9/11, which is officially designated as Patriot Day.
Food, music and a day out with your friends and neighbors -- Downtown Batavia's 6th Annual Summer in the City festival appeared to be a success on all of those counts yesterday.
Main Street was bustling all afternoon and into the evening.
More photos after the jump:
Thanks to Abby Scalia and Samantha Luce for helping with balloons at The Batavian booth.
Margarita's Mexican Restaurant was shut down by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance just before noon today. The only information from officials on scene was that it was a "tax issue."
Tax Compliance Agent Elizabeth Schmidt, hanging the "seized" sign above, provided The Batavian with a phone number for the department's press office. We're expecting a call back. While Schmidt posted the sign, a locksmith was busy changing the locks. The business won't reopen until all back taxes are paid.
UPDATE: Susan Burns, spokeswoman for the taxation department called: Best Margarita's Grill, Inc. owes taxes on four warrants, with the oldest being back sales taxes from the second quarter of 2009. The four warrants total $32,914.
"We're in the process of working with the taxpayer and the indication is we will work something out fairly quickly," Burns said. "They should be re-opening soon."
The four warrants: Aug. 5 -- $16,166 for sales tax; Aug. 5 -- $1,373, for corporate tax; July 1 -- $64 for corporate tax; and April 2 -- $15,311 for sales tax.
"We always try to work with the taxpayer and negotiate a settlement," Burns said. "It's best that the business stay open for the community and that's what we work to see happen."
UPDATE: WBTA also learned that Margarita's reportedly had additional tax warrants dating back to 2007 that were paid. The total of the paid-up back taxes is $14,246.
Scratch Tom Lewin off Batavia's "Most Wanted" list.
The man city inspectors believe is responsible for another summer of gull poop and stink around the former Latina's Foodland voluntarily appeared in Batavia City Court yesterday morning with his attorney.
An arrest warrant was issued for Lewin after he failed to appear in court last week.
On Friday, Amherst PD reportedly went to his house looking for him, but he wasn't home.
Lewin did not enter a plea to the code violation charges against his company, LKLWL Properties, which owns the Ellicott Street building. He is schedule to appear in court again at 10 a.m. on Aug. 20.
Tom Lewin is a wanted man.
Lewin, representative of LKLWL Properties, did not appear in Batavia City Court this morning on the matter of alleged code violations at the former Latina's Market property and Judge Robert Balbick issued a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, attorneys for IPTV-B-C-45, LLC, the current mortgage holder on the property at 45 Ellicott St., did appear in court.
Franklin Hiller, attorney for the mortgage company, said that IPTV, not LKLWL as previously indicted by Lewin, hired PestRX to evaluate the gull issue at Latina's and come up with a plan for deal with the issue.
To implement that plan, which was turned over to the court by the attorney for IPTV, will cost IPTV $16,600. It will involve cleaning bird debris off the 41,580-square-foot roof, power washing the sides of the building, cleaning drains and putting in new drain covers, and implementing an "exclusion" procedure to deter the gulls from coming back.
The exclusion method was not specified.
"We intend to put forward our best effort and resolve this issue and put it right with the city," Hiller said.
As mortgage holder -- having only recently been assigned the mortgage, Hiller said -- IPTV has the right to protect its financial interest in the property and insure the building is well maintained.
Without IPTV stepping in now to try and resolve the issue, IPTV could ultimately face a bigger bill down the road.
"The cost of any fines or penalties or the cost of the city's remediation would ultimately come out of the mortgage holder's pockets," Hiller said.
One potential stumbling block is that before PestRX will begin work, Lewin must sign a liability waiver.
Outside of court, another attorney for IPTV, Mary Redmond, said that one way or another, IPTV will handle the issue.
As for Lewin, Judge Balbick wants to see him in court.
"The defendant will answer in my court independent of what you (Hiller) do," BaIbick said. "It’s imperative that this man appear in city court."
City Manager Jason Molino said the city will actively pursue the warrant against Lewin to ensure he appears before Balbick to answer the code violation charges.
Photo: Franklin Hiller, courtesy Geoff Redick, WBTA.
The gull problem at Latina's is "hand-able, but a large-scale problem," according to a manager for Pest RX, a company out of Clarence hired by LKLWL Properties to assess the situation and recommend a solution.
"It's not like it's a one-shot deal," said Jeff Waiter. "It's not like we're going to come in here for however long and we'll never see a seagull again. We're going to have to work with the property owner and work on a long-term solution."
Both Waiter and Pest RX owner Jeff Phelps said they still need to put together a plan, but the preliminary solution includes fixing the drainage on the roof, getting rid of standing water, and coming up with an "exclusion" system, something to make it harder or scarier for the gulls to land on the roof.
Just ensuring it's a clean, dry roof will do a lot to deter the gulls.
"The first thing is, the standing water has to go," Phelps said. "Once that's gone, we'll do a power wash and clean off the roof, but to keep them off permanently, there's a lot of obstructions there.
"We're trying to put our heads together and come up with a plan," he added.
It shouldn't be necessary to get the DEC involved at this point, Waiter said. He said the team spoke with the DEC this morning, they have a copy of the DEC manual and so long as they're not disturbing eggs or active nests, no DEC permit is required.
He said they found no eggs and only old nests on the roof today.
"We can definitely make the place tidy without a DEC permit," Waiter said, "so long as we don't harass the young or the eggs."
Photo: From left, Phelps, Waiter and another Pest RX employee.
Discontent of the seagull population is continuing to grow and so is the media attention. Social networking site Facebook.com is one of the latest media outlet to show the public support asking for LKLWL owner Tom Lewin to take responsibility for the growing problem that is occuring on the building owned by his company.
The facebook page, titled Tom Lewin remove the Seagulls at Latina's- Batavia, NY! is a community based page currently with over 100 fans supporting the group and the cause.
Tom Lewin, one of the owners of the former Latina's Market location on Ellicott Street will have a pest control company on site Monday. It will evaluate the gull problem that city residents and business owners have been complaining about for months.
"Hopefully by Tuesday, I'll have their recommendation," Lewin said.
Asked about DEC involvement -- the city was required to get a permit before dealing with the gull issue atop City Centre a couple of years ago -- Lewin said he didn't know anything about that.
"I'm not a gull expert," he said. "Are you?"
Earlier today, Lewin was quoted on the WGRZ website as saying he was cooperating with the city on the issue.
"We are working diligently and cooperatively with the City of Batavia to find a solution," Lewin reportedly said.
Reached this morning, City Manager Jason Molino said he had spoken with Lewin, but also said he would like to see some action before he would call it cooperation.
"If there’s a move over on that property, then I guess you could say that’s true," Molino said.
The city issued a condemnation notice on the building, which could provide a path for the city to take steps on its own to deal with the gull infestation; however, the County Health Board has ruled the gulls are not a public health hazard.
Lewin, principal in LKLWL Properties, has also been summoned to City Court to respond to allegations of code violations at the vacant site.
BATAVIA, NY -- The gulls roosting atop Latina's may be noisy, stinky and prone to poop on anything and everything, but they are not a public health hazard, according to the County Board of Health.
Board President Mary J. McJury notified BID Director Don Burkel of the board's finding in a July 7 letter.
"Although the Board of Health empathizes with the current situation, it was the board's determination, following careful review of the investigation, that this situation does not constitute a public health nuisance."
The Latina's building was condemned last week by the city for allegedly unsanitary conditions.
LKLWL Properties, the building's owner, has been summoned to City Court on July 23 to answer a complaint by the city that the company has failed to deal with unsanitary conditions on the property.
In her letter, McJury notes that the Herring Gulls are attracted to the Latina's roof because it is flat, warm and protected from harassment and predation.
"It is a short flight for them to feeding opportunities in the agricultural land surrounding the city," she wrote. "They are omnivores and eat anything from garbage to berries."
She said the actual issue with the property appears "to be property maintenance and aesthetic in nature."
She notes that the New York Department of Health issued a report finding no negative human health issues associated with Herring Gull populations.
Also, to date, there have been no reports of illnesses related to Batavia's gull infestation.
When I stopped into South Beach, 59 E. Main St., Batavia, this afternoon to see what was up with the re-opening plans, the first thing Ken Mistler did was give me a cup of ice water.
Man, was it good. And not just because it was 96 degrees outside.
Mistler has a whole new filtration system that all the water -- for cooking, ice and table service -- goes through. It's as pure and clear as a pristine mountain stream.
And it's also evidence of the first-rate job Mistler has done in putting together the new South Beach. He's not calling it "Ken Mistler's South Beach," but that's how we might start thinking about it. It's both that different and yet still South Beach.
Inside are the same bamboo and beachy themes, but Mistler has also made a lot of changes, from adding a side-door entrance and doing away with the Main Street entrance, to enclosing the kitchen. The latter change helps keep heat in the kitchen instead of the dining room. He's also added new, larger, more private booths.
There's also more seating overall and a bigger bar.
And Mistler isn't done. He's got expansion plans for downstairs once the main restaurant is running smoothly.
The new South Beach officially opens Tuesday.
As for the food, Mistler said it will be "South Beach with a flair." There will be steaks and seafood and pineapple dishes, but one unique feature is that diners will have the option of ordering -- and paying less -- for smaller portions.
"We thought, when we go out to eat the plates are just too big, too much food on the plate, and you feel obligated to eat it," Mistler said. "We’ll do away with that by offering the same dish, but a smaller portion at a lower price."
If you noticed the bright red trucks of Scalia's Landscaping around Latina's today, don't get your hopes up that purported property owner Tom Lewin of Buffalo has suddenly taken responsibility for the rotting hulk of a former supermarket.
Scalia's was hired by the city after LKLWL Properties allegedly failed to comply with a code violation posted on the building on June 24.
LKLWL Properties will be billed for the clean up -- which included weed abatement and hosing down the sidewalks, which were covered with gull poop, along with a $250 fine.
The city took the same enforcement action against LKLWL Properties last year. The city is also working on a court case alledging that the hundreds of gulls nesting on the roof of the former Latina's Food Store are creating an "unsanitary condition."
Neither court nor city officials were able to say today when that case might be heard in Batavia City Court.
For previous coverage, click here.
Last year, city workers had to remove the weeds from around the seemingly rotting Latina's building, billing the property owner for the abatement.
LKLWL Properties out of Amherst may be in for another bill from the city if owner Tom Lewin doesn't deal with the growing weed problem soon.
BID Director Don Burkel said he spoke with Lewin the other day and he said Lewin was adamant that he's not going to do anything with the building, neither in regards to upkeep nor selling the property.
I called Lewin this morning and left a voice mail asking him to confirm whether that's his position. No call back yet.
Of course, most of us call the building the Latina's building because that's still the company name on the side of the structure.
I called Latina's Food Services out of Tonawanda and asked if a company spokesman would comment on any potential public-relations problem in having a decrepit building in the middle of Batavia with its name on it. No official spokesman would come to the phone. The only response was through a receptionist who said he was told to say, "We don't own the building."
Previously:
Hundreds of motorcycle riders were in the procession this morning escorting the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall from Le Roy to the Veterans' Home in Batavia.
As local law enforcement cleared the way, the procession moved swiftly through town.
The Moving Wall will be on display through the weekend, night and day, with opening ceremonies at 5 p.m., today.
Reached on his mobile phone, Tom Lewin, reportedly manager of LKLWL Properties out of Amherst, the listed owner of the former Latina's Market building at 45-47 Ellicott Street just hung up on The Batavian.
Asked what he plans to do about the sea gulls roosting on top of the apparently deteriorating former grocery store, Lewin said, "I have no comment" and terminated the call.
Lewin reportedly took the same tact when reach by Geoff Redick of WBTA earlier today.
Lewin reportedly said there are no plans to sell or develop the building. Redick reports that Lewin refused to comment on the issue. Redick said he asked if he had a reason to disregard the public health in Batavia, Lewin reportedly called it a "loaded question" and discontinued the interview.
WBTA reports that the Business Improvement District has requested LKLWL clean up the problem, and USDA Wildlife Services have been contacted, and that the County Health Department regards the growing number of gulls as a possible public health concern.
WBTA reported that LKLWL has refused to let anybody on the roof to investigate the situation.
Ken Mislter, who owns 10 properties downtown and has in previous years helped organize the classic car show in the Court and Ellicott parking lot said the reason there is no classic car show this year is the car owners don't want to subject their rides to gull droppings.
The property is listed on the BID's website as for sale or lease. The current assessed value is $700,000.
Polka is one of those musical styles that just unavoidably brings a smile to your face. It was an appropriate choice to kick off a fun concert season in Jackson Square on Friday evening. And the Bedrock Boys didn't disppoint.
For more on upcoming shows, check the Jackson Square ad on the right side of the page. The series includes blues, rock, country and jazz and continues through August.
More pictures after the jump:
The Downtown Public Market opened today.
Above, Salters Alston, proprietor of Alston's Bone Sucking BBQ Sauce, serves up a mound of his pulled pork.
Between Alston's and the Jackson Street Grill stand, the market is going to be a great place to stop for lunch on Thursdays.
And then you can pick yourself up a few big, plump tomatoes to take home.
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