Point Breeze pop-up beer garden is open this weekend
It had been closed for a week after L&I filed an appeal of Municipal Court Judge Nina Wright Padilla's order on July 11 that overruled L&I's cease-and-desist order, first issued July 8. (Confused yet?)
The Point Breeze pop-up beer garden (1622 Point Breeze Ave.) - subject of a pitched battle between its owner, John Longacre, and the city Department of Licenses and Inspections - will be allowed to open this weekend, July 25-26.
It had been closed for a week after L&I filed an appeal of Common Pleas Court Judge Nina Wright Padilla's order on July 11 that overruled L&I's cease-and-desist order, first issued July 8. (Confused yet?)
Padilla was off last week. On Friday, she reinstated her preliminary injunction and gave the city till noon Monday, July 27 to file a response. L&I has appealed to Commonwealth Court.
The crux of the dispute is whether L&I has jurisdiction over Longacre's beer garden. Longacre says that because his state-issued liquor licenses are being used to operate the beer garden, he does not need a variance. L&I says he does.
Danya Henninger at Billy Penn, reporting on Longacre's latest apparent win, described the back and forth as a ping-pong battle.
Saturday's hours will be 2 to 11 p.m. Longacre decided not to open Sunday.