The Riverside City Council Tuesday unanimously upheld a high-end wine and spirit store’s appeal to open the business at the site of a former party supply store in Ward 3 despite previously being denied by a resident advisory commission. Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes abstained from the vote.
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“The biggest issue is, when people hear [about a] wine spirit store, they hear [about a] tasting bar, they might immediately jump to the worst case conclusion,” Councilmember Steven Robillard, who represents the area, said during the September 15 meeting. “That’s something that I impressed upon the applicant and his team to make sure that they address those concerns, and we heard a little bit about that this evening.”
Inland Empire business owner Jasmin Patel is set to open specialty alcohol shop Jazz’s Wine and Spirit store in the Magnolia Center neighborhood, filling a long-vacant storefront in between Brockton and Magnolia Avenues.
The store is focused on procuring a range of wine and spirits not typically available at local grocery stores, Patel said at the meeting. It will also include a coffee shop, a small market and a tasting room called Jazzy’s that would be primarily used to host educational experiences.
“This is not a typical liquor store or late-night venue,” Patel said to the council during the public meeting. “It is a thoughtfully designed specialty wine and spirit shop and small bar tasting experience operated responsibly and personally by me.”
Patel requested that the city council review his business proposal as part of an appeal to the Planning Commission’s decision after they had rejected his initial application earlier this year.
As part of their denial, the commissioners cited concerns with an over-concentration of liquor licenses in the neighborhood, lack of community outreach and doubts about the bar’s educational angle.
Since then, Patel said he canvassed the community on multiple occasions to ask for community feedback. He also agreed to close down both the shop and the tasting room by 10 p.m. everyday, hire security and install a range of other safety features.
Craig Fry, who also represented Patel during the council meeting, reiterated that the store’s bar would be used for educational purposes to teach residents about the history of an alcohol brand while also being able to taste the drink.
The council members also reviewed the neighborhood’s over-concentration of liquor licenses, ultimately finding that the midtown shopping area was a commerce hub similar to that of the downtown area with many of the licenses given to grocery stores and restaurants.
Both Robillard and Councilmember Sean Mill said they believed the business would benefit the community by having a storefront open after 5 p.m. to help deter unhoused people from gathering in the area and crime.
“Vacancy breeds vagrancy, and this particular property is an eyesore because there’s just no activity,” Mill said during the meeting. “But as Councilmember Robillard pointed out, when you have activity, things go away.”
Patel, in a phone call with The Riverside Record, said he expected to finalize all the paperwork required to start construction within the next six months. The work, he said, could take up to a year.
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