LBI's Holiday Snack Bar at odds with Beach Haven over outdoor dining

Holiday Snack Bar, a restaurant that has been in business on Long Beach Island since the late 1940s, is at risk of losing out on the busy summer season because its owners are at odds with the borough over issues related to outdoor dining.

Last month, the borough denied Brian and Eileen Bowker a mercantile license, which is required for a business to operate. Holiday Snack Bar’s 2022 license expires May 14.

The Bowkers, who purchased the seasonal Beach Haven restaurant in 2021, and also own Bowker's South Beach Grill in Holgate, have been involved in litigation with the borough in Ocean County Superior Court since last summer.

Between 2013 and 2020, the restaurant's prior owner, Glenn Warfield, was permitted to have outdoor seating. In 2019, the Land Use Board approved a temporary site plan approval that allowed an increase of seats from 16 to 24. That approval was good for one year.

In March 2021, the Bowkers requested and received approval to begin serving breakfast several hours earlier than it had previously, at 7 a.m. The request was granted, with the condition that service could not be offered at the restaurant’s outdoor picnic tables.

In June 2022, the borough contacted the Bowkers to inform them that the business had been observed serving more people than were permitted outdoors. Holiday Snack Bar, which sits on a corner in a residential neighborhood, subsequently applied for an outdoor dining permit and received approval for 36 outdoor seats.

“Weeks after approval of breakfast hours, the Holiday Snack Bar continued outdoor seating which exceeded approved capacity, and breakfast was being served outdoors, which was never approved,” the borough said in court last summer. "Further, the total number of tables and chairs exceed the required number permitted by the borough and the restaurant’s permit for outdoor seating.”

"By admission of their own ordinance, they give you a mercantile license, then you apply for the outdoor dining permit," Bowker said. "They approved us for 36 seats outside. Then the outside dining permit automatically transfers with your hours of operation. So they said that I could open at 7, and then they said no breakfast during breakfast hours."

In late June 2022, the borough issued a summons to Eileen Bowker. Soon after, the borough says it revoked the restaurant’s outdoor permit dining license.

The borough’s by-laws allow a license to be revoked “if the establishment fails to comply or if conditions of the permit are not adhered to.”

Eileen Bowker contends that she only received notices from the borough regarding the revocation of the permit, not an actual revocation.

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The borough has asked the Bowkers to go before the Land Use Board with a new site plan proposal that would allow outdoor dining at the restaurant, saying the outdoor permit dining license granted earlier in the summer was temporary.

In Beach Haven, such permits are valid April through November.

"They gave me a CO (certificate of occupancy)," Eileen Bowker said. "If this had been an issue when I purchased, they (shouldn't have given) me a CO. They have been changing the rules and moving the goal posts. It has not been easy, it has been challenging."

Last summer, the borough filed an injunction in Ocean County Superior Court that would have restricted the restaurant from serving breakfast outdoors and from allowing more than the permitted amount of outdoor seating. Judge Therese A. Cunningham denied the injunction and the case is ongoing, with both parties due in court later this month.

"Holiday Snack Bar is a pre-existing nonconforming use in a residential neighborhood, so any change to their operation requires site plan review under borough code," said Bruce W. Padula, attorney for the borough, in court.

The Bowkers contend that as a pre-existing nonconforming use, outdoor seating has always been permitted.

"Why should she appeal ... to the Land Use Board when her argument is that she was exempt from approval because these are pre-existing conditions?" asked Curtis Dowell, attorney for Holiday Snack LLC.

"I do not want enemies from this," Bowker said. "Towns should be business friendly. It becomes a he said, she said."

As of May 11, Bowker said she was considering filing a minor site plan application, which would go before the Land Use Board at its next meeting on June 5. In doing so, she would receive a temporary mercantile license.

Kathleen Hopkins contributed to this story.

Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore restaurants: Holiday Snack Bar at odds with Beach Haven