SNOW HILL – An Ocean City restaurant will be able to add an outdoor bar following approval from local officials.
The Worcester County Board of License Commissioners (BLC) last week approved a request by Shotti’s Point to add an outdoor bar on the restaurant’s rear deck. While the board granted the request, members encouraged the restaurant’s connections to heed concerns from neighbors regarding noise.
“Be careful,” said William Esham, BLC chair. “If they’re on you we’re going to be on you.”
Attorney Chris Woodley, representing Shotti’s Point, told the board the restaurant’s connections wanted to add a 16-seat bar to the restaurant’s rear deck.
They wanted to remove some of the existing 42 seats at tables and install a 16-seat bar. They said the bar would make it easier for servers, who currently have to go to the other side of the restaurant to get drinks for the customers on the deck.
Neighbors, however, said the restaurant, which is attached to K-Coast, already had a loud exhaust vent and they felt that a bar could increase noise further.
“How long before they put a band out there or a DJ?” a neighbor said.
K-Coast’s Chris Shanahan said he’d not been contacted directly with any concerns about the exhaust fan. Esham said the board’s hearing was to address the bar request, not the fan, but acknowledged that the neighbors were concerned about potential noise associated with the bar.
Connections of Shotti’s Point said it would primarily be a service bar but would provide seating for a patron that came in and wanted to sit alone, for example.
The tables currently on the deck are all for parties of four.
“There’s a preponderance of people that prefer to sit at a bar,” Shanahan said.
The board, noting that the restaurant had no violations so far, approved the addition of the bar but advised the restaurant to be cognizant of noise.
At last Wednesday’s meeting, the BLC also voted to approve a request for additional entertainment at Pizza Tugo’s in West Ocean City. Though owner Scott Heise asked to increase band size from three pieces to five pieces on the first floor and from two pieces to four pieces on the second floor, the board granted just the first-floor request.
BLC members said they were concerned about music on the second floor because of its deck near Route 50. The first floor of the restaurant is entirely indoors.
“I have a lot of concerns about Route 50,” BLC member Charles Nichols said.
