Hill’s Bronze Door to create platform dining space on Kercheval

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Another Hill restaurant will be bringing outdoor dining into the street.

The Bronze Door, at 123 Kercheval Ave., will be erecting a dining platform on the street in front of the restaurant using two on-street parking spaces for that purpose. The proposal was in front of the Grosse Pointe Farms City Council for site plan approval April 10.

Bronze Door owner John Vicari said the new outdoor dining area will seat about 30 patrons. The former sidewalk-only outdoor dining area had room for about 24, he said.

“We’re going to reconfigure the patio that was there” on the sidewalk, Vicari said.

He added that this includes freeing up more of the sidewalk for pedestrians. This is something required by the city, to allow pedestrians to have continued access to the public sidewalk.

“That will be very much of an improvement,” said City Councilman Neil Sroka, noting that he has tried to push a stroller along that stretch of sidewalk and understands the challenges of getting through if it’s too narrow.

City officials asked that Vicari use furniture and materials similar to what other Hill restaurants have used for their dining platforms. Furniture and the platform need to be removed and stored in the off-season.

Because the dining platform will use two parking spaces, City Manager Shane Reeside said the restaurant will need to pay the city $240 per month to make up for lost parking meter revenue, even though one of the spaces has been labeled as a valet space for some time. This is the same requirement that has been imposed on other restaurants that have used on-street parking spaces for dining.

Vicari said the restaurant hasn’t offered valet parking for some time now, so they don’t need a valet space anymore.

The platform will be surrounded by a wrought-iron railing, and Vicari said they will also place barriers with flowers, gravel and reflective tape between diners and the roadway as a safety measure, in case a vehicle was to drive into the platform area.

As he has done when other restaurants requested the use of on-street parking spaces for dining platforms, Dr. Edward Jeffries, who owns the Hill building at 100 Kercheval Ave., voiced his opposition to this proposal. Jeffries said clients and patrons of other businesses want convenient on-street parking close to wherever they’re going and if it isn’t available, they’ll just leave.

“During the pandemic, we did everything we could to help restaurants survive … but that time has now passed,” Jeffries said. “I don’t think it’s fair to favor one group of businesses over (others).”

Jeffries added that he felt there was “plenty of room on the sidewalk for dining outside,” as well as plenty of room inside the Bronze Door. If the council approved the Bronze Door’s request, he asked that they consider adding more on-street parking spaces on the Hill by getting rid of the loading zone in front of Morgan Stanley, which he said is no longer needed for that purpose.

City Councilman Lev Wood said he’s seen commercial vehicles use the loading zone to deliver goods to various Hill businesses and said that there’s plenty of parking in the Hill’s municipal lot, noting that many adjacent restaurants have entrances that face the parking lot, along with their main Kercheval entrances. Mayor Louis Theros said the loading zone wasn’t part of the decision the council was making that evening.

City Councilman Joe Ricci said he had concerns about the loss of two more on-street parking spaces, whether the barriers and reflective tape would provide enough safety for diners in the street, and the length of the platform.

“There’s plenty of seating in your restaurant,” Ricci told Vicari. “I just don’t think it’s necessary.”

Expressing a different sentiment than Ricci, City Councilman John Gillooly said that as long as the restaurant installed “good, firm barricades” to protect diners, it should be relatively safe.

“I’m in favor of the project,” Gillooly said. “I think safety is key. … Keep up the good work. You maintain a good, clean establishment.”

Vicari said he would do whatever the city needed for him to do, including with providing appropriately strong barriers to protect patrons from an out-of-control motorist on Kercheval.

Farms resident and former Public Safety Director Daniel Jensen voiced support for the proposal and called the Bronze Door “the cornerstone of the Hill.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Jensen said. “I think it adds ambiance to the Hill.”

The council voted 6-1 in favor of the site plan, with Ricci casting the vote against it. Approval came with several conditions, including reducing the width of the platform from 8 feet to 6 feet to be consistent with other Hill eateries that have these platforms, making sure that the dining platform is accessible to people who have disabilities, and providing the city with more detailed drawings showing what types of barriers will be used around the platform. Reeside said the final plan is subject to review by the Public Safety Department.

Reeside said a one-way driveway that served the former bank next to the restaurant may be closed off when Kercheval is repaved this spring, which would add one on-street parking space on Kercheval.

Vicari said work on the outdoor dining platform would likely start in mid-May, after roadwork on Kercheval is completed.