Planners give OK to neighborhood restaurant

Former Phoenix gets ‘special exception’ for off-street parking

The city Zoning Hearing Board this week gave developer Christopher Cook permission to re-establish a neighborhood restaurant, while also giving Cook a "special exception" to provide off-street parking that would minimize neighborhood disruption.

The dual rulings will allow Cook's "Church in the Middle of the Block" to reopen the former Phoenix restaurant at the corner of Third Street and Fourth Avenue as Cook's Kitchen -- and to develop a catty-corner vacant lot for customer parking.

Cook needed the non-conforming use renewal because the restaurant had been closed since 2018, longer than the one-year grace period the zoning ordinance allows before nullifying the licenses of non-conforming uses that predated the zoning law.

The site had been an eatery since 1880, when it started as the Columbia Hotel, continuing in 1970 as the Phoenix, after a fire led to removal of the top two floors, Cook told the board.

It's located in "the neighborhood I grew up in" -- one in which Cook already owns many buildings, he said.

There are 10 paved spaces behind the restaurant, plus eight spaces connected with the nearby Church in the Middle of the Block -- which is on the 200 block of Fifth Avenue -- plus seven on-street spaces adjacent to the restaurant, Cook said.

The additional parking lot would provide 13 spaces, which should be enough so customers of the 90-seat restaurant won't need to park in the street alongside any homes in the neighborhood, Cook said.

The spaces behind the church will be for restaurant employees, he said.

Cook is not razing any buildings to create the additional off-street parking, as the lot has been vacant for 20 years, he said.

Cook plans to spread gravel on the lot for winter, then pave it in the spring.

It would be impractical to pave it now, as asphalt plants will be closing soon for the season, he said.

He would not want to open the restaurant without making the lot available for fear of customers over the winter parking in front of neighboring residences, he said.

The restaurant will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, he told the board.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.