HOWELL – Members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment have granted one of Howell’s oldest restaurant locations a certificate of non-conformity which will allow the property on Route 524 (Adelphia Road) to be sold as a restaurant/bar.
Most recently, residents have passed by the business that was last known as Lorenzo’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge. The building’s history as a restaurant dates back to at least the 1930s, although Lorenzo’s has been closed since 2012.
During a March 26 hearing, a professional who represents the board said Howell has received inquiries about the property, which led to a determination a restaurant is a non-conforming use in the ARE-2 zone where residential and farming uses are permitted.
That night, representatives of the property owner, Zenovia Vlahakis, appeared before the board to seek a certificate of non-conformity confirming the restaurant/bar is a valid pre-existing non-conforming use. Zenovia Vlahakis was represented by attorney Thomas M. Monahan and by attorney-in-fact Donna Vlahakis.
Testimony indicated the owner intends to sell the property and when steps were taken to do so, it was determined the certificate of non-conformity was needed.
“This was a restaurant/bar that has not been used as such for a number of years and there was a question as to whether the use was a pre-existing legal non-conforming use. Everybody knows it was a restaurant and a bar, but it is up to the applicant to prove the use was valid at the time the use came into being,” said Ronald Troppoli, the zoning board’s attorney.
Donna Vlahakis said her family moved to Howell in 1997 and purchased the Adelphia Road property in 2004.
“The (building) had been a restaurant/bar because there is a liquor license (and it) is ironic that we were the first people to come here to get a continuing certificate (of non-conformity) because we (had) the first liquor license that was issued in Howell (from) 1936,” Vlahakis said.
She said the property was a restaurant/bar when her family purchased the site.
“Prior to (our ownership), I think (it was) the Edge of Town, before that it was owned by (a) corporation and was known at the Double J Bar, that was in 1981. From 1940 to 1981, there was a (township) meeting on June 28, 1940, that showed a consumption license owned by Blue Moon Inc. on the property. Prior to that there was a (township) meeting on Oct. 7, 1939, that shows an inventory of liquors from Patsy Mayo to Blue Moon Inn, so it was known as the Blue Moon Inn in 1939,” Vlahakis said.
She said there are municipal meeting minutes from 1936 referring to Patsy Mayo and a consumption license for an operation on the property.
“So it has been an operating bar/restaurant since at least 1936. I believe it is even before then because I have seen pictures in the restaurant that show a horse-drawn carriage, but I do not know when that was, but there are records it was in existence as a restaurant/bar since 1936 which is before (Howell’s) zoning rules went into effect,” Vlahakis said.
She said she has been trying to sell the property since 2012. She said people are interested in the property, which is being marketed as a restaurant/bar. Testimony indicated the family has maintained commercial insurance on the property and has renewed the liquor license every year.
Board member Thomas O’Donnell said he heard people talking about the Blue Moon Inn in 1972.
“I owned a bar and went to the bar you are talking about many times, and there were numerous elderly customers at the time who would always talk about the Blue Moon bar. I must have heard 500 stories about it and I believe that place was open so far back, maybe before I was born, that it went in (as a) pre-existing, non-conforming (use), but it was granted by the township,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell said he was 100 percent certain the zoning board could grant the certificate of non-conformity Vlahakis was seeking.
“I know that property for damn near 50 years, so I know it went back way before that and I heard testimony that verified it,” he said.
O’Donnell made a motion to grant the certificate of non-conformity and he and his fellow zoning board members voted to grant Vlahakis the document she requested.