By Cassie Bottge
Staff writer
Thirsty Turtle owners are questioning a landlord's business practices after he removed a chicken wire fence that kept the bar closed for more than a year yesterday - two days after the bar's opening.
Tommy King, co-owner of the Thirsty Turtle, accused the landlords' attorney, Ronald Willoner, of trying to force a buyout last year by putting up the fence, which prevented the bar from opening because it blocked a fire exit in the bar's back alley.
"If both fences are taken down, then there's no conclusion other than Ronald Willoner put that fence up to hurt the current ownership group of the Thirsty Turtle and the ladies that own the building," King said.
Mark Srour, owner of the neighboring bar, The Mark, initiated the move after he reached an oral agreement with Willoner to keep the fence down until Dec. 23, which will allow his bar to triple its capacity.
The fence sealed off alleyway fire exits for both the Thirsty Turtle and The Mark, limiting both bars to a 49-person capacity under county law.
The Mark decided to open last year despite this, while the Thirsty Turtle fought the fence in court and this year built a new exit to avoid it when they faced no other options.
Held down by the low capacity, The Mark developed a reputation for its intimate atmosphere, which Matt Cronan, a manager there, said earned the bar mixed reviews because of its extreme selectivity.
The bar recently ran into troubles with city code enforcers for exceeding its 49-person capacity.
"We were limited to a low amount of people and I couldn't fill the bar up," Cronan said. "The Mark was this hugely misunderstood bar that came off as pretentious."
King said he didn't wish Srour any bad will, even though the hold-up cost the bar's owners thousands of dollars as it remained closed and the Mark opened for business. King instead placed sole blame for the fiasco on Willoner.
"I hope he does take both fences down for The Mark's sake because I wouldn't want to see them go through what we went through," King said.
Srour said he hopes the deal with Willoner will be a permanent fix for him, although Willoner would only confirm the oral agreement.
"He asked me to do it for him, and I said yes, but as long as the fire marshal knew that it was temporary," Willoner said. "In the sense that any agreement is a verbal contract, I suppose you can say it is a contract."
Bob Ryan, the city's director of public services, said he was unaware of any agreement between the two businessmen and did not acknowledge the capacity increase at The Mark.
"Whatever changes are made have to be inspected, and I'm not aware that it has been," Ryan said.
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