When you”™ve got to go, you”™ve got to go.
A dispute over access to the restrooms at Chappaqua Train Station has led the New Castle town board to flush an agreement with one restaurant in favor of a deal with another, competing business.
The board voted May 20 to accept a bid from restaurateur Lisa Lampert to open a 40-seat bistro at the train station called Love at 15014, a reference to Chappaqua”™s area code. Lampert, who owns Ladle of Love in Mount Kisco, said the restaurant will serve healthy on-the-go style foods like salads and soups.
“Having lived in Chappaqua for 24 years, raising my family here, it was always a dream actually to find the right place to open here,” she told board members. “It represents so much of my family”™s growing up and when this became available it became the right fit.”
That deal elbows out Carla Gambescia, who last year reached a deal with the town to open a full-service restaurant called Via Vanti Piccolo. Gambescia is the owner of Via Vanti! restaurant at Mount Kisco Train Station, not far from Lampert”™s Ladle of Love.
Gambescia has been operating the coffee service at Chappaqua station since October, after she was chosen as the winning bid for a lease of the property in early 2013. The opening of the restaurant was put off as the town hired a contractor to repair the 112-year-old train station building.
New Castle elections in November 2013 saw changes on the town board and earlier this year elected officials requested bids again. They sparred with Gambescia about access to the bathrooms at the building, which the town said was required by the terms of the deal to be accessible to members of the public and not only to patrons of the restaurant. To access the restrooms, commuters would have had to walk through the dining room ”“ something which Gambescia said was debated but never presented to her as a deal-breaker.
“It”™s really ridiculous that we”™re even talking about this,” Gambescia said of the toilet talk during a March 11 meeting of the board. “If it was simply said to me this is a mandatory, it”™s like ”˜fine, no biggy.”™”
Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein, who came into office in January, said of the bathroom issue at the time, “It was even more important than the rent.”
P. Daniel Hollis, an attorney for Gambescia, said the board misacted when it solicited new bids for the property without having formally voted to rescind the deal from last year. Hollis also said that the process put his client at a disadvantage because it made the terms of her deal public.
“We shouldn”™t be here,” he said. “The playing field is not level.” It was unclear if there would be a legal challenge to the new deal. Gambescia was not available for comment at press time.
In agreeing to the new deal, the town supervisor said Lampert”™s proposal provided a better adaptive re-use of the building rather than converting the space into a full restaurant.
“One of the Town Board”™s concerns in terms of leasing the train station depot was the nature of the renovations that would be required to allow the building to function as a restaurant,” Greenstein said.
The lease with Lampert will run 10 years, with a five-year renewal option. Monthly rent will be $3,300 and escalate over the course of the agreement. Greenstein said he anticipates a “seamless transition” between owners and no interruption in morning coffee service.
