Commission to review smoking at Q-Club Cafe

The Costa Mesa Planning Commission tonight will discuss the Q-Club

Cafe, St. Matthew’s Church, a rental car dealership and expansion of a

restaurant space at South Coast Plaza.

Commissioners will review whether Q-Club Cafe is complying with

modified permits approved in August for the restaurant at 1525 Mesa Verde

Drive East.

The cafe is allowed to have a small smoking area in back of the

restaurant but is not allowed to serve food or alcohol there and has to

supervise the area to minimize noise.

Commissioner Katrina Anne Foley said the board received several

complaints in August from the managers of a nearby bookstore and dance

school about the amount of smoke and the number of patrons hanging around

outside the front of the cafe.

“I guess they [patrons] were gawking through the windows at the dance

school, and that is pretty scary,” Foley said. “I can appreciate that.

There are teenage girls and little girls in there. And I am not opposed

to calling this up for review again in say, six months. It all depends on

what we hear.”

Commission Chairman Walter Davenport said, however, that people who

complained about the Q-Club Cafe in August have not made any more

comments.

As long as there are not any more complaints at tonight’s meeting,

Davenport said he is inclined to just let the cafe go without anymore

checkups.

“Planning staff has gone into the cafe and checked it out and has

found that it is in compliance” in keeping smoking to the back area, he

said.

“You can’t totally control your clientele, but they have made a good

turnaround. But again, we won’t know how we are going to vote until we

hear from the community at the meeting.”

The commission also will consider allowing a 665-foot expansion of

existing restaurant space at South Coast Plaza.

The expansion, which would require a master plan amendment, would

accommodate outdoor seating at Z’tejas Grill, a full-service Southwestern

cuisine restaurant with a bar, in a space between Sears and

Robinsons-May.

Foley said she doesn’t see why the commission would not approve the

expansion because it would be good for the restaurant.

“That restaurant site has had a lot of turnover,” she said. “It would

be good to be able to sustain it and get more people in.”

Davenport agreed.

“It’s a fairly minor expansion in terms of how much space [South Coast

Plaza] has,” he said.

“They just want more outdoor seating and it really isn’t that much

footage. . . . But I am not sure how the rest of the planning staff feels

until we hear all sides.”

In addition, the commission will consider allowing St. Matthew’s

Church to run a temporary facility at the Daily Pilot building, 330 W.

Bay St., and allowing LCD Partnership to store cars for a rental car

dealership in the back parking lot at K-Mart, 2200 Harbor Blvd.

The commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

Information: (714) 754-5245.