The Fridays@3rd Street War

The Appeal has a story this morning about Mom & Pop's owner Doug Cramer being pushed out of the Fridays@3rd Street event he started nine years ago.

I've been talking with Doug about this situation, and there are a few interesting things left out of this story.

Basically, the city is refusing to give Cramer a liquor license for the event since he owes $2,483.33 on the $7,000 contract he signed to fund last year's event. Cramer said he didn't pay the balance because event organizer John Procaccini allowed Firkin & Fox to put their bar in the middle of the street, cutting off business for Cramer's bar and breaching the contract.

But this is where it gets interesting.

Cramer told me last week that when he met with city officials recently about this controversy, they were surprised to see that his contract contains a diagram showing where each of the bars were supposed to be located, which proved his contention that the contract had been breached.

Another interesting tidbit is how the city could block his license when he doesn't owe the city any money. Cramer said the money is paid to Procaccini, not the city, and he wonders how Procaccini can tell the city who they can issue licenses to. Cramer will have a bar for the upcoming Taste of Downtown, but that only happened because the organizers of that event — Advocates to End Domestic Violence — had to go to bat for him with the city to get it.

Also, Cramer said he owns the Fridays@3rd Street trademark, so it's possible that he could take legal action against the city for using his name. He said he informed the city about this, but there's no sign they are going to stop using the name, as there's already a big banner hanging from the balcony at Firkin with the name on it.

Cramer has spoken to me several times over the last two years about this event, and he is upset about the direction the event has taken. Originally, it was more of a family event, with tables and chairs so people could sit down and enjoy some music, food and drinks.

But the Firkin & Fox — the new kid on the block — wanted more of a rock concert feel, with no tables, chairs or food, and a younger, standing-room-only crowd ordering lots of drinks. And I really can't blame them for that, because that's what their customers want. It also fit in with Procaccini, who supplies the stage, lighting, sound and the bands.

And this is where the root of the dispute lies. The three businesses involved — Firkin, Mom & Pop's and Bella Fiore Wines — all cater to different crowds. That makes sharing an event like this problematic.

If there were someone refereeing this fight (hello, Office of Business Development), they might have come up with a solution like dividing the events between the three businesses and letting them plan those events to cater to their customers.

But no such luck. The event last year basically catered to Firkin, and now they will be the only one participating this year. Bella is sitting it out, and Cramer is starting his own event over at his new Paradise Cove restaurant at the Carson Mall.

With Doppelgangers also hosting weekend music just up the street, will the city continue to subsidize this event to the tune of $42,000, with benefits going to only one business? How many more establishments are there that might be coming to the city to subsidize their events in the same fashion?

I've been working for a few weeks on a story about the overall Curry Street Promenade that this event has become a part of, funded by the city to the tune of $75,500 for this year. The Board of Supervisors approved this funding back in April despite the fact that the application was incomplete and, most importantly, didn't include a budget.

City Manager Larry Werner told me last week he is still working on getting a budget together for this event, even though the event has already begun. Hopefully I'll be able to have more on this next week.