Bob & Barbara’s Lounge must take down its new streetery for South Street repaving

There’s a new Citywide Special on South Street. But instead of a shot of bourbon and a cheap beer, you build an expensive streetery and then tear it right down.

The long-planned repaving of South Street has forced Bob & Barbara’s Lounge to dismantle its new parking-space patio, after navigating the city’s complex application system for over a year, waging a court battle, and spending about $50,000 in the process.

The shot-and-beer purveyors are furious with the city over what they describe as a series of confounding miscommunications.

Bob & Barbara’s is one of just 26 bars and restaurants that managed to obtain a streetery license under the city’s new regulatory system for approving parking-space dining patios. The Department of Licenses and Inspections granted the South Street mainstay its license in January — and by March, the dive was celebrated their bureaucratic victory with the grand opening of their streetery.

“Everybody loved it,” said co-owner Oscar Duva, 30, who runs the dive bar with his family. “It was a big hit.”

But the victory was short-lived.

In mid-May, Duva got a call from a city contractor. South Street was scheduled to be repaved, and they’d need to move their streetery. They were later ordered to dismantle by June 30.

The problem: The design that the city approved did not make the streetery easily movable. And throughout the yearlong application process, no one at the Streets Department or the Department of Licensing and Inspections had warned them that repaving was imminent.

Duva was perplexed.

“We had to go through the Art Commission, we had to get Streets Department approval, we got a building permit, and we [finally] got our license through the Department of Licensing and Inspection,” he said.

Duva said the initial guidelines that they based their design around did not make clear that streetery setups would need to be dismantle-able in 48 hours. And the city had approved their semi-permanent structure.

Bar owners hired an attorney to fight their case, but a Court of Common Pleas judge ruled in the city’s favor last week.

“The lack of communication and the disregard for our business considerations and business expenses, it really feels unfair,” Duva said. “It’s like they don’t care.”

In a statement, Matthew Cassidy, a spokesperson for the Streets Department, acknowledged that repaving projects are planned years in advance, but said dates are not the finalized until a contractor is chosen. The statement did not specify when this occurred for South Street.

“The actual start dates for the paving were determined once a contract was awarded,” Cassidy said. “The Department of Streets conveys to the applicant dates of paving as soon as they are finalized. These dates are subject to change.”

City records show the contract for the paving company was issued in October 2023 — three months before Bob & Barbara’s was awarded the streetery license. A contract planning document shows that the South Street repaving was anticipated as early as July 2023, with estimated dates that closely match the work being performed this year. The city did not release the finalized repaving schedule until May.

The Streets Department also castigated the bar for delaying the removal of their streetery beyond the deadline.

“After the courts ruled in the city’s favor last week, the bar owners are still attempting to delay the removal until September 30,” Cassidy said, noting that the federally funded repaving has a strict completion timeline.

Duva said that he moved as fast he could to hire someone to remove the streetery after the judge’s ruling last week. The removal is slated for Monday.

In August, the City Controller’s Office issued a report that echoed long-standing criticism about the streetery approval system, noting the process is plagued with hurdles, fees, and red tape. Few restaurants and bars can meet the requirements, the report found.

Bob & Barbara’s is the second South Street business to be shocked by the repaving news — despite the city’s blessing to install a streetery.

Two blocks away, the former Pumpkin BYOB faced similar jeopardy this summer. The 20-year-old new American restaurant spent 16 months navigating entangled in city bureaucracy to get their license. Their streetery design was approved, and weeks after erecting a similarly priced $50,000 structure, the city notified owners that they had to take it down for the South Street repaving.

Pumpkin won a temporary reprieve from the city, but within a month, owners announced the beloved BYOB was closing for good, citing a host of economic factors.

In a post on social media on Monday, Bob & Barbara’s blasted the city over what it called a needless debacle, likening it to a David and Goliath story. “Goliath has won and decreed our structure to be moved, all at expense to the business of course,” the bar owners wrote. “Thank you to [the] city for looking out for the little guy and for such great communication between your departments.”

Duva said that the loss is ultimately the city’s as well, as the bar’s lost revenue also amounts to lost taxes for the city on alcohol sales.

The city spokesperson noted that streetery licenses are valid for 12 months and the bar is “free to restore the streetery as other restaurants have done.” Duva said Bob & Barbara’s may try to bring back a smaller, simplified structure. But right now, they’re focused on recouping their losses.

Napkin math reveals that the bar will need to sell at least 12,500 Citywide Specials to break even. On social media, the bar invited patrons to swing by the bar and “laugh through the pain together.”

“It’s really disheartening,” Duva said.

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed reporting.