Can you imagine a sports bar without TV screens? Neither can Fernando Yanes, the owner of Bar77 on Giralda, where fans can almost always find a football or futbol game to watch.
Yanes has been working to make the TV screens up against his windows legal since code enforcement cited him last year. The city has a 12 foot setback. But these are screens for his outdoor tables.
He went to Mayor Vince “L’Ego” Lago, who sponsored an item allowing at least two TV screens and it passed the commission unanimously last September. The legislation then went to the zoning board, which recommended approval and sent it back to the commission for second reading.
But Lago told Yanes on Monday he is not going to bring it back to the commission for a second reading. The stated reason is that another restaurant across the street says the light from the TV screens bothers their customers. All of a sudden. After three years.
It is more likely is that Lago found out Commissioner Melissa Castro was trying to help Yanes also, and now he wants nothing to do with the business.
Read related: In Coral Gables, Melissa Castro calls out Vince Lago for his rudeness, disrespect
Yanes wouldn’t repeat exactly what Lago said to him at the end of an impromptu meeting Monday. But it was something like, “If Commissoner Castro has the cojones, she can bring it back.”
Said Yanes: “Era un comentario malsano.” Or “It was a sick comment.”
What’s sicker is that after Ladra called Lago and left him a detailed message about what she was inquiring about, he called Yanes — and his landlord, Yanes said — and chewed him out for talking to me. This is the second time that Ladra knows of that Lago, who just doesn’t call back anymore, does this. Last year it was when Political Cortadito was reporting on the many mortgages he had and the money he borrowed from former Commissioner Frank Quesada. L’Ego — who very publicly blew up at another journalist at another restaurant last week — told Yanes that Castro pays Ladra to write this (Editor’s note: Nobody pays me to write this or anything else. Just like nobody paid me to mistakenly endorse Lago in 2021. I do this for kicks and giggles. It brings me joy).
Lago wants to be like Miami Mayor Francis Suarez but is looking more and more like Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo every day and this looks like the campaign against Ball & Chain in Little Havana — completely retaliatory for political reasons. Maybe Yanes should call Jeffrey Gutchess, the attorney that won those guys a $63.5 million civil judgement.
The mayor and city manager called Yanes to a meeting at City Hall Monday, he told Political Cortadito. “It was a rushed meeting. Usually we meet with respect and calm. And this was agitated,” Yanes said.
“It’s illogical,” he said about the about-face. “The five commissioners said it was okay. They sent it to zoning, and zoning said I could do it. How are they not going to call it for a second reading?
“He told me he was looking for a middle ground,” Yanes said of the mayor. “But if he turns off my TV screens, that is not a middle ground.”
Read related: Fritz & Franz Bierhaus wins three-week reprieve from Coral Gables commission
The threat comes on the heels of what many consider bad faith negotiations with the owner of Fritz & Franz, another sports bar that was given a three week reprieve to strike a deal with the city at the last commission meeting. That window ends next week.
Castro said that the original item allowed one TV screen and that she worked with the city manager to make it at least two. “But Vince thought it was all the city manager,” she said. “I’m guessing he found out that I was trying to help and now he’s retaliating.
“But how do you retaliate against your colleagues by retaliating against your business owners?”
Castro said she checked with the city attorney’s office and “nothing in the charter says I can’t bring back an item he sponsored.” I guess the commissioner has the anatomy, Mr. Mayor. She was told the city needs to advertise it 10 days prior, so it won’t be at next week’s meeting. Castro is looking at the meeting after that.
Yanes said the owner of the restaurant that is complaining had approached him a few months ago and offered to buy his business. Yanes said he wasn’t interested. “That’s when all this started.
“This put me in a bad spot,” he said, on our second phone call, adding that it reminded him of his hometown in Venezuela. “I don’t want any trouble with the city.”
Read MorePolitical Cortadito
