Again, here's just a key site so that the board can orient itself.
This building right here is the Jefferson Plaza, again, with our entrance being right here on the 11th Street building.
The applicant seeking a special exception this afternoon for a full-service Mexican restaurant at the subject property known as Mi Vita.
This is another floor plan.
Again, orienting the board again.
Here is the Jefferson Plaza.
This is our building where we will have access.
This is our building where we will have access down Ludlow Street, which is right down here.
There's other shops and restaurants located in the surrounding area, as you can see from
these photos.
Another pedestrian courtyard.
And then our entrance, which is located right here.
This is, again, to orient the board, Clover Street, which is a private street, pedestrian
walk through. So again, you kind of see that mixed use feel. There's offices on top. And again,
this is the space right here for the property that we're speaking about. Again, the restaurant
itself is called Mi Vita. It's a Mexican restaurant. Right now there are, and I'm sorry,
I'm having, it seems like everybody in my office is having issues with PDFs today.
There are currently three locations of Mi Vita. They're all operating in Washington, D.C. One
One of the witnesses that I'll be calling after this testimony will give a little bit more of an overview of the restaurant itself.
Again, the location itself will not technically have frontage on Chestnut or Walnut, but internal pedestrian access from Chestnut Walk and Ludlow Street.
Trash accumulation and collection will be completely stored internally.
and it'll be collected and transported internally and deposited through our internal
loading dock. It'll be collected minimally at least twice a week. The exhaust louvers are all
located along Clover Street, which again is also a private street. The hours of operations will be
seven days a week with the estimated hours in the beginning being 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through
Thursday, 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
As I mentioned before, we are here because the refusal requiring us to get a special exception
for a restaurant because of that frontage on Chestnut or Walnut Street. As shown from the
photos, this use will be similar to other uses on the ground floor of this area. The proposed use
will not be detrimental to the surrounding area,
and the proposed use wouldn't create any greater harm
than what is expected from a similar permitted use.
We did have a meeting before the RCO,
the Washington Square Civic Association,
which, as the chairman noted, did give us a letter of support,
which is on the screen right now.
If I can, Mr. Chairman, the first witness that I would like to just call
is the owner of or representative of the ownership of the building,
which is mr charles norman and after that it'll be council council when you call him could you
show us the plans for what the restaurant's going to look like inside yeah and i was going to have
the operator of the restaurant or the principal that's right that's right yep yep yep that's
fine okay what's his name his name is charles norman okay charles norman i'm not allowed to
speak there could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Charles Norman, C-H-A-R-L-E-S-N-O-R-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Norman, can you state your title and your affiliation with the landowner?
I'm a senior development manager, and I was responsible for the development of the 1100
Ludlow building that this restaurant is proposed to be in.
All right.
And were you on the call when I went through the testimony?
I was.
And did you hear everything that I provided to the board?
I did.
Is everything that you heard true and accurate to the best of your knowledge,
information, and belief?
It is, Leonard.
And would you adopt that as your own?
I would.
The only question I have for you, Mr. Norman, is you guys obviously vetted this tenant
before you signed any sort of agreements
to have them come in here.
Do you agree with that statement
that they would be essentially a good use
and a fit for this area?
I think it'd be a fantastic use
and a fantastic tenant
and a great amenity for the neighborhood.
All right, perfect.
I have no further questions for Mr. Norman,
Mr. Chairman.
Okay, you have another witness?
I have one other witness.
It's Mr. Jason Berry,
and he's the principal of the uh me vita sure jason berry if you're in the virtual audience
please raise your hand
jason berry has been allowed to speak
hello can you hear me right could you yes could you please state your name and spell for the
photographer jason berry j-a-s-o-n berry b-e-r-r-y where a firm to tell the truth
Do I affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Berry, can you please state your name and title and affiliation with MiVita?
My name is Jason Berry. I am the co-founder and principal for Need Hospitality and Design, which is the owner-operator of MiVita.
And have you heard, were you on the call when I went through the testimony to the board?
I was, and everything was true and accurate.
All right, that was the second question.
And you would adopt it as your own, sir?
I would.
All right, perfect.
Now, I do have on the screen, as I'm sure you can see, some photos that were from the Washington, D.C. location.
Is that correct?
Yes, sir.
Can you just explain to the board and just kind of talk to the board a little bit about MiVita and sort of the photos that we see here, what the architecture is going to be internally, and then we'll get into the floor plans as well.
Sure. Where would you like to start?
Let's start talking about the photos I'm showing right now.
Just talk a little bit about Mi Vita and sort of what you guys are going to be doing here in Philadelphia.
Mi Vita is an upscale, casual Mexican restaurant.
It's pan-Mexican, meaning that we serve food and beverage from all over Mexico.
Obviously, we specialize in tequila and mezcal, which are the two most well-known spirits.
We serve beer. We serve wine. We serve brunch. We serve lunch and dinner. We offer a happy hour. And the photos that you're showing of our original location in Washington, D.C.'s District Wharf, that restaurant is a three-level restaurant.
uh and uh this is the ground floor uh this restaurant picture that you're on right now
is our 14th street location which is the second of the maybe it is to open here in dc and uh you
know this is uh high design high style high ceilings uh you know one of our mantras in our
company is that you eat with your eyes so we spend a lot of time and energy designing our restaurants
and operating them to the highest level and highest quality.
Hopefully you agree with what you're seeing.
The top picture there and the screen is our newest location
in Penn Quarter, neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,
across the street from the Capital One Arena.
So this is, of the three restaurants,
probably the most close design to what we're going to be doing in Philadelphia.
I don't know if that answers your questions.
No, it's funny.
Why don't you show us the floor plans?
can you see that mr chairman yes i can okay jason do you and it's either if you're not
comfortable walking through this we can have charles so but do you want to walk the board
through the floor plan just kind of give a quick overview of what we're showing on the screen here
yeah i can do that unless charles prefers to do it why don't why don't you do it why don't we just
If you look at the top left of your screen, the entrance, I guess the great the great area on the left side of the of the screen is our covered patio.
Call it a loja. There's some seating for there's banquette seating.
This is actually looks like a reflected ceiling plan or something else.
So this is not an actual floor plan showing the seating. I don't know if you'd rather show that.
yeah that that one um uh top left is uh the entrance to the restaurant walking through
the loja into the uh restaurant uh those double doors towards the top into the welcome area
as you scroll down uh you'll see the bar we have 88 seating at the top of the bar
and then about uh 17 seats uh inside on the exterior where the sorry my screen's really
jumping around so i apologize but on the left side of the the uh left side of the screen you'll
see our covered patio with various banquette seating options uh with heaters and fans outside
back to the interior opposite the bar you'll see some booths uh and banquettes we have a lot of
different kinds of seating. The restrooms for our guests are towards the bottom of the screen.
We offer individualized all-gender restrooms, so it provides a lot of privacy for our guests,
which we are big fans of. On the top of the screen, top of the floor plan, you'll see
a nice long table for larger groups moving into a room that has varied banquette seating,
and then moving into our private room, which will be used for private events as well as
uh general dining room a la carte reservations when applicable the rest of the space is back
general dining room a la carte reservations when applicable.
The rest of the...
of the house including kitchen uh hotline prep area storage etc
perfect mr chairman i have no further questions for uh mr barry okay did you have has your
testimony been adopted i believe mr barry did you i know that you said uh everything was true and
accurate uh that i stated would you adopt that that testimony that i provided as your own i would
questions from the board yes what's the hours of operations
so the hours of opera sorry oh you got that that's fine i do the hours of operation monday
through thursday sir are 11 a.m to 11 p.m friday to saturday 11 a.m to 12 a.m
and sunday uh 11 a.m to 10 p.m did you have a uh did we have did i didn't see a letter of support
from the rcl or there is yeah there is washington square west you're not unanimous and a non-opposition
from council members okay great thank you um any other questions from the board uh yes uh can we
uh i'm trying to figure out where this is i think this is uh where the it's like 11th and
like there was a wawa there with and there's iron hill brewery yes a little opening there
where you can go into this courtyardy kind of area is that what we're talking about that is
correct so the iron hill is located so this is love low street right here uh-huh okay and the
iron hill will be i'll give you a better picture of it but it's going to be down this it'll be
down the right here so and is that is that mom is that on 11th or the iron hill is i just want
to get my map that's the the building in the back there i think is the was that the reading that the
what is it it's not the reading terminal but the love low the love low apartments i know
no i'm talking about in the very back there that's on the other side of market street
so this courtyard here is looking right out onto market correct
Yeah. So there's a, I guess it's like an opening, but I don't think too many people go back there too much. But okay. But I think this view, the, where the Wawa used to be on market would be to the left, and the Iron Hill would be to the right.
So I don't know where the Wawa used to be.
it was right on the corner of like the market where the iron hill is which is right here where
my cursor is me vita is to my back directly behind me from where this picture was taken
ah okay so putting it this way looking at let me get you a better shot of this
right here this is the entrance to me vita iron hill is now to my back
ah okay all right okay just just because i know there's a whole like courtyard area
just trying to figure out where this was actually going to be okay all right the questions from the
board thank you thank you questions or comments from our attorney hillary emberson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up by the name of charles norman they have been allowed to speak
wasn't he before he was one of the witnesses yeah i was trying to answer the question about the uh
where that was located but you guys got through it okay thank you i appreciate it uh any other
questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
of Ron Bednar City Planning. The property is indicated for commercial mixed use on a city plan.
Proposed restaurant use will have no more of an impact that would be expected given its intended
location. Therefore, we recommend that the granting the requested eating and drinking
establishment special exception. Thank you, Ron. Council, as soon as we receive the signed lease,
we'll put it up for a vote okay i'll get that over to you right away probably be next next
wednesday okay you'll have it first thing uh tomorrow 2 2 p.m next wednesday thank you very
much mr chairman thank you okay here we go
Thank you.
Okay, here we go.
Number 10, MI 2024-005-498-2337-41 South Alder Street.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
Non-opposition from Lower Moy Mencing Civic Association
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Brandon Saverin has been promoted to penalist.
Good afternoon, counsel. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin. That's spelled B-R-A-N-D-O-N. And then S is in Sam, A, V is in Victor, R-A-N is in Nancy.
Where are you from to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.