Brett’s Waveland Cafe, the immensely popular ivy-covered restaurant in a corner of Lincoln Park, is closed now until spring. But if recently adopted rent hikes for park concessionaires are enforced, its winter hibernation may become permanent.
For Knobel, it seems a catch-22. And at least two park board commissioners admit that they did not read the guidelines closely before they approved them; they now believe the suggested rents are too high and should never have been adopted.
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In case they don’t, the cafe has many fans ready to raise a fuss. “We recommended that they not adopt those rent guidelines, and they did it anyway,” says Erma Tranter, executive director of Friends of the Park, a not-for-profit watchdog group. “If they drive Brett’s out, it will be awful. Brett’s is the best restaurant in the Park District. It has a diverse menu, low prices, and a good community spirit. It’s the model for other vendors in the park.”
“It’s a beautiful place to eat,” says Tranter. “You’re overlooking a big playing field, so you can watch softball, or football games, or dogs running. Or you can take your food and sit beneath the big clock tower that overlooks the golf course.”
“I started getting these weird letters, like the one about the sink,” says Knobel. “Health laws require a three-compartmental sink, and the Park District had been promising to install one for my kitchen. I told [Wade] that. The next thing I know, I get a letter that says, ‘It has come to our attention that your premise does not come up to standards. Please fix it, or else.’ I was shocked. I can’t afford capital improvements with the rents they’re charging me. Besides, it’s their property; if they’re going to rent it as a restaurant, they should make sure it’s up to code.”
Wade also notes that concessions rents are set on a sliding scale geared to gross revenues–the higher the gross, the higher the percent–and that other vendors pay a higher rate than Brett’s. For instance, ARA Leisure Services, which operates concessions at Soldier Field, pays 44.3 percent of its gross to the Park District. And the Bismarck Sport Service pays the district 34.1 percent of its haul from Grant Park concessions.
“At best, we gross about $150,000 a year. I pay 38 percent of that for wages; food costs another 40 percent. If I paid 24 percent in rent, I’d be 2 percent in the red–and that doesn’t include my other bills, like insurance.”
