Chelsea’s owner on rezoning: ‘This is just the tip of the iceberg’

Chelsea’s Café is being backed into a corner to change its rezoning status. David Remmeter, owner of the popular Perkins Road restaurant and live music venue, pleaded “no contest” to charges of operating a bar without a license to do so, and agreed to pay a $2,000 fine. His restaurant license is suspended for one year unless he meets certain conditions from the Louisiana Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, such as changing the zoning status to reflect operating as a bar. If Remmeter loses his restaurant license, he will be forced to shut down the business.

“The other part of the stipulation is he has a choice to get his city restaurant license to match the one he has from the state, or he can rezone and receive a bar zoning that would allow him to get a license from the state, called the restaurant conditional permit,” says ATC Commissioner Murphy Painter, who explained that with that particular zoning, Chelsea’s Café can be a restaurant until 9 p.m. and be a bar until closing time, as long as ratio and qualifications are in tact and there’s no zoning issues within the area.

“That’s how complicated it is,” Painter says. “I’m not a demon. I just do what I have to do.”

Remmeter says he is working to get his rezoning status through the Metro Council. In the meantime, he says, Chelsea’s will continue offering a full menu all day and live music after 10 p.m.

Remmeter says that at his old location by LSU, alcohol sales outnumbered food sales. Since he moved to the Perkins Overpass, food sales surpassed alcohol sales. Painter, however, argues that the records show Chelsea’s is “selling barely more food,” which still puts the restaurant out of qualifications to be considered a “bona fide restaurant.”

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Remmeter, who adds that a few restaurant owners in town are looking at ways get around the ATC restrictions. “It’s a big deal. We’ve got a strong business; people like this place.”