1 Amie March 19th, 2007, 7:28pm

This is the first I’m hearing about this place. It sounds really cool? Would there be any reason for opposition to it? We are just so desperate for things like this in the neighborhood.

2 apryl March 19th, 2007, 7:40pm

There actually is a lot of opposition from folks who live near the location — they’re worried about the late nights, drinking and parking.

3 Amie March 20th, 2007, 6:30pm

UGH! I would be more worried about the late night taggers and gang-bangers. As a home-owner, this is what we need to increase our home values, not more auto shops and booze shops!

4 jj March 25th, 2007, 2:21pm

After attending the TERA and ERNC meetings my wife and I decided to go to dinner at Magnolia in Hollywood, which is the Fat Dog Lounge/Restaurant (or whatever they want to call it) owners’ other establishment.

In our opinion, Eagle Rock does not need a venue that serves $20 a plate skirt steak and has an enormous, packed bar like the one at Magnolia. I encourage everyone who reads this post to find out more about this situation, as well as go to Magnolia in Hollywood and see for yourself whether it is the type of place that fits our community. This is a very real situation that will impact the lives of Eagle Rock residents and set a precedent for similar businesses that will look to come here.

5 bh March 25th, 2007, 9:28pm

I am a home owner and shop owner in Eagle Rock. We NEED more restaurants and night life. More night life means more people on the street which equates to less crime, tagging and increased property values. We’re becoming known as a town that is unfriendly towards small business.

It’s ridiculous how difficult it is for a restaurant to open in this town. There will always be $5 hamburger joints in Eagle Rock. Right now I have to take guests to Pasadena or Silverlake if they want a martini with dinner. I would prefer to keep my dollars in Eagle Rock.

Eagle Rock has made much change for the better, do you remember what it was like just five years ago? If you don’t want upscale bars and restaurants, Santa Clarita awaits……

6 Sara March 26th, 2007, 9:02am

I have been to the meetings and have heard both sides of the argument.
Unfortunately the Fat Dog Lounge is not the upscale restaurant that we were initially told. It is a Lounge/Bar that wants to serve some sandwiches and salads (like coffee Table) but really wants to serve alcohol.
This is not your typical restaurant that wants to close at 10/11pm they want to stay open to 2am and have a bar space that is three times the space of other Eagle Rock restaurants. As a Eagle Rock community we can do better than this.
I don’t even live near the proposed site for Fat Dog and neither do my neighbors that oppose this type of bar establishment but we all agree that this is not going to help our community, property values or the other businesses.
We want to be a community that is a destination spot for both restaurants and shops, not bars.
What we really need is more serious restaurants by serious restaurant tours.

7 Amie March 26th, 2007, 3:14pm

In order to draw people to Eagle Rock to shop and eat you also need a little night life (we have none unless you are into tagging up Yosemite Rec Center, road signs, and alley walls. Many of our small businesses are struggling and other businesses (like Larkin’s) are finding it next to impossible to open. Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, you are either out of sink with the newer homeowners who want to call Eagle Rock home or you just don’t really care to help out new businesses. I mean, sure I love the kitsch of Columbo’s as much as the next gal but this should not be our only option for nightlife in the Rock. We need some place to hang out after 11 PM!

8 dm March 27th, 2007, 3:13pm

I love restaurant tours!
I’m a regular restaurant tourist!
I am so in sink with that.
With the faucet pouring water on my head.

9 Felicia March 27th, 2007, 10:39pm

I have to agree with most everybody here and say Eagle Rock really needs an upscale Restaurant and not a bar like the Fat Dog organization.
There are plenty of places to go after 11pm in LA, it’s called Hollywood.
As a person in her twenties the reason I moved to Eagle Rock was because of it’s unique small town feel. If I wanted corporate generic cheesy bars like the Fat Dog Lounge I would be living in Orange County.

10 dm March 28th, 2007, 8:30am

I wholehearted agree with Felicia.
Well said.

11 David March 28th, 2007, 6:27pm

Felicia, Oh Purleeeze!!

Fat Dog Lounge is hardly “corporate”.
It’s not like “Gordon Biersch” or “Islands” is opening up here.

I saw the proposed menu for Fat Dog and while it’s not
as upscale as I’d like, it could hardly be labeled “bar food”
Kobe Beef Burger and Wedge Salad ?! yay. I can’t wait !

I don’t want to always have to go to Hollywood and Pasadena. I want this place to open and I want to see more restaurants AND bars open on Colorado. I want to spend my money on Eagle Rock businesses.

12 Amie March 28th, 2007, 10:33pm

Well said, David. Maybe I’m just too old to want to go to Hollywood for night life or maybe it’s that I commute an hour every day for work and don’t want to have to drive to go out at night or maybe it’s that I think my money would be better spent in my own neighborhood than in Pasadena, Silverlake, or Los Feliz, but I think we need a variety of restaurants…and we do need a little nightlife in Eagle Rock, we just do. By the way, I love wedge salads and my husband will be happy to hear about the kobe beef burgers.

13 Jake March 28th, 2007, 11:57pm

Hay David did you know McDonalds is serving Kobe Burgers….maybe you should go there for your “high end” burger.
If you want night life like Hollywood or Passadena then why did you move here in the first place?
If you are really that starved to get drunk then I’d be happy to give you some suggestions. How about the Chalet, Columbos or even Minx.
There are at least 5 new restaurants opening up in Eagle Rock soon but it seems like you just like your alcohol.
The Fat Dog organization is just another cheap version of a restaurant that is really a bar in disguise and The people in Eagle Rock are not fooled. Except those that just want to get thier drink on.

14 Apryl March 29th, 2007, 7:47am

There is no reason to get rude or personal. This is a very real issue with valid concerns and questions. Whether or not this place actually comes to Eagle Rock — we need to treat each other with respect, both at meetings and on this board.

15 Felicia March 29th, 2007, 8:02am

I don’t think anyone is getting rude or personal. Your right this is a real issue and it IS personal to people who live in Eagle Rock. This is a major issue because once a corporate bar like Fat Dog gets into the community then it is open season to all the corporate/chain developers.
Most people I know moved to Eagle Rock because they lived in nightlife places like Hollywood, downtown etc…There are many people in this community that don’t want to see Colorado blvd lined with bars and nightclubs.

16 Amie March 29th, 2007, 9:19am

But the Sizzler isn’t too corporate for you? Or the taco bell? Fat Dog doesn’t sound “corporate” to me–I think these guys own one other place. I don’t want Colorado to go corporate either, but I think we have different definitions of this word. For example, I don’t want a Cheesecake Factory or Chilis on Colorado, but I would love some place where I can get a martini with my dinner or a place where I can stop in for an after dinner or theater drink. Sure, maybe it is all about the drink, but look at Columbo’s any given night and you’ll see its packed. Adults like a drink every now and then and that is nothing to be apologetic about. And some of us don’t want McDonalds to be our dining option in the neighborhood (in fact that is the corporation we should be trying to oust from the Rock).

17 lkw March 29th, 2007, 11:12pm

I love walking to restaurants in town and having a place to go for dinner and wine. I have been to Magnolia, which is supposedly the Fat Dog’s owners’ other restaurant. Honestly it isn’t really upscale, just more expensive than your typical restaurant. I found it pretty “clubby” for what we’d want here. I used to live in Hollywood and it at the time it was right up my alley - but not anymore, that’s why I moved here. I don’t think they’re so much corporate as they are looking for a place to have a hotspot-kind of bar that happens to serve food. Again, I absolutely want another restaurant in town but I can say that if I lived behind the building (which fortunately I don’t) and an open-air smoking patio was next door to my house I would probably totally freak out.

18 sara March 30th, 2007, 12:58pm

Amie maybe you should have put the energy you have now into the energy of stopping places like the Sizzler, Taco Bell etc..

Well Said lkw. No one is against of having another restaurant.
The point here is having another bar in this area where we already have some. I don’t think people of Eagle Rock are against a restaurant at the corner of Townsend and Colorado they just don’t want a bar.
The worst thing about this whole Fat Dog organization is the lieing they have been doing to this community. It is the old bait and switch..tell people it is a high end restaurant and then it turns into a bar.
Eagle Rock IS already a walking neighborhood where you can walk from restaurant to restaurant or shop to shop. I guess if shops are not two feet from one another then people don’t consider it walking distance?

19 Amie April 1st, 2007, 9:21pm

Hi Sara,

Unfortunately, I didn’t live here yet. I was working on my MFA from CalArts in the 90’s. I moved here because of the wonderful artistic scene, the peaceful yet vibrant community, and the ability to be an young artist and a homeowner which is virtually non-existent anywhere else in Los Angeles except maybe in downtown. I love Eagle Rock. I want to see it grow without losing it’s charm or history. Younger businesses move to places like this because they love the architecture and want to preserve it. That is one of the major reasons that I support places like this. I also don’t want Eagle Rock to be seen as a place that is difficult to site. If we gain this reputation we will make it more attractive to true corporate enterprises that don’t give a care about being part of the community but have enough money, manpower and connections to steamroll through city red tape and community resistence.

I want us to work together with businesses such as this to reach positive solutions so that there are places for everyone to enjoy—some that I might like and others that you are more attracted to. This kind of diversity is symbolic of a healthy community.

I hate smoking on patios too–so, a solution might be a non-smoking patio and have the patio limit it’s hours in comparison to the interior of the place. I’m a solutions person and I think we can all get along.

Peace,

girlintheroom.blogspot.com

20 David April 2nd, 2007, 11:51am

Everyone has made some very good points. I’m keen to see how this will develop. I hope Fat Dog opens and I hope they take into account the concerns of the neighbors next door, too.

Jake, is it that obvious that I’m an alcoholic ?

21 David April 3rd, 2007, 2:39pm

And by the way… McDonalds serving Kobe Beef burgers ?!?! …you’re quite the comedian. Will they serve Ninety Nine Dollar happy meals too ?

22 Amie April 19th, 2007, 6:48pm

David, it looks like TERA opposed Fat Dog. I’m really worried that I made a mistake in moving here. It seems the old regime is just fine with taggers and crack dealers…just don’t try open something cool in Eagle Rock. I thought this is where I would raise my family but I’m not sure anymore. I am so sick of tagged buildings, crappy streets, boarded up buildings and can’t stand the lack of vision of the old guard. I’ve lived in a lot of transitional neighborhoods so I’m used to the normal conflicts but the opposition to things that would actually raise property values and encourage business growth…don’t get it.

23 Keith April 26th, 2007, 11:05am

First-off, I would like to say that I’ve known Tim Yalda, the building owner of the proposed Fat Dog Lounge for several years now. When Tim told me about a high-end restaurant moving into his building I was very happy.

However, I’ve been to two meetings about the proposed Fat Dog Lounge (yes, I know that the owners’ changed the name of the establishment to the “Fat Dog Restaurant” to make it sound innocuous)and came away with a very different view:

1. The Fat Dog is a BAR. Yes, you can get food there with YOUR ALCOHOL. 80% of the public space is dedicated to the bar. A RESTAURANT is a place where you can order drinks WITH YOUR FOOD. I saw the floorplans and the menu. Better than average bar food, but still not upscale.

2. While at the meetings I had an opportunity to speak with one of the owners’ of the Lounge, Richard Mandeville, one-on-one. Richard had a rather arrogant and dismissive attitude towards my concerns (which, BTW seem to be the majority opinion) and would not even look my in the eye. Personally, when some NEVER looks you in the eye I find it hard to trust that person.

3. I would still like to see an upscale restaurant in Eagle Rock, but the Fat Dog IS NOT it. Ever been to Magnolia? After 9 PM it becomes a club scene. Fine, Magnolia is located in a well-defined commercial corridor in Hollywood. This IS NOT the case at the proposed Fat Dog site.

4. There are myriad reasons why the Fat Dog should not be allowed to open at the currently proposed site. I won’t go into all of them but parking problems, the way Colorado Blvd. narrows at Townsend Avenue (eastbound), the quirky stoplight at the intersection, the cars speeding down Colorado Blvd. (especially the westbound traffic who just exited the 134 FWY), and the close proximity to Dahlia Heights Elementary for starters. I have plenty more, including City of Los Angeles Ordinances. Anyone who wants more info can see me at the ERNC Land Use Committe meeting tonight. I’lll be there with dozens of other concerned citizens in the area, many of whom do not live close to the proposed Fat Dog location.

5. If the Fat Dog owners really wanted to improve the community (like they said at the meetings I attended) they could have approached the community and asked for input to see if the community wanted something like the Fat Dog. They could have contacted someone on the TERA Board of Directors and asked “what we thought” and TERA could have asked for community input throught the TERA web site and TERA e.letter. Michael Zamarrippa (the co-owner of the Coffee Table Restaurants in Eagle Rock and Silver Lake) and John and Jennifer at the Colorado Wine Company did this.

6. Amie - while Felicia is uninformed about the Fat Dog being a corporate-type establishment and should stop beating that drum, YOU should do some research of your own about TERA. FYI, the current TERA Board of Directors IS NOT “the old regime”. It was TERA who fought for the adaptive reuse of the old Shopping Bag market building, a 40s’ Streamline Moderne type structure that was demolished and replaced with the Walgreen development. No vision? Old guard? Please. Did you know that it was a certain “old Boys Club” thinker on the ER Chamber of Commerce that welcomed Walgreens and said that she thought that the Walgreens building is wonderful”? How she ever got on the Cultural Heritage Commission I cannot fathom, seeing that she and her late husband took a beautiful two-story Craftsman home and stuccoed it in a typically bland color. Just like her dry personality. But I digress.

It has historically been the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce who let any business in no matter what it was Walgreens, McDonalds, Taco Bell. To them any development is good. My position is that of TERA’s mantra: The broad mission of this organization is to work for improvement of the quality of life in the Eagle Rock Community in Los Angeles, California, by providing research and education about Eagle Rock, participating in land-use planning activities, and promoting positive community growth and beautification.

TERA is not opposed to development, but we want good development! The Fat Dog is an inapproprite type of business for that particular location, period.

I wonder, are YOU involved in community improvement programs? Have you volunteered for the annual Day of Service in Eagle Rock or Highland Park, planting flowers, picking up trash, working in the Eagle Rockdale Community garden, or any other project in Eagle Rock. If you are, I think that you would know TERA members, TERA Board members, and educate yourself about the issues that the Fat Dog will bring if it gets in.

Again, no vision? Old guard? You truly have not a clue…

24 Lori April 27th, 2007, 12:36am

I attended the second Land Use committee meeting tonight. I have to say I was somewhat on the fence before tonight’s meeting about the fat dog issue. After being at both meetings and listening to both sides it is now very clear to me that the fat dog lounge is just wrong for that location.
I can’t believe any decent human being would think that a lounge that size with those proposed hours of operation is okay. The kicker to me was the ideal of having patio that is located a few feet away from a residential neighborhood!

It has also been very clear that most people in Eagle Rock are PRO BUSINESS and (that includes the people against Fat dog) and like seeing the changes in the neighborhood.
It’s funny how there are at least 4 new restaurants coming to Eagle Rock that are ahead of the Fat Dog Lounge. I guess the question is how come these restaurants do not have such an outcry from the neighborhood? The answer is very simple because they are acting responsible and want to be apart of the neighborhood and not against it.
I was however very embarrassed to see how the board members on the Land Use committee acted. I could not believe the in competency of these board members who didn’t even know how to vote!
Thank god that these board members only make a recommendation to the ERNC.

Again the overwhelming support from the community was against the Fat Dog lounge was pretty impressive. Both meetings had easily over 90% against the fat dog lounge.
If the Land Use board recommends fat dog go through with the same hours of operation, size, patio etc…then we’ll all know something is really fishy.

25 Lori April 27th, 2007, 6:43am

I attended the second Land Use committe meeting tonight. I have to say I was somewhat on the fence before tonights meeting about the fat dog issue. After being at both meetings and listening to both sides it is now very clear to me that the fat dog lounge is just wrong for that location.
I can’t believe any decent human being would think that a lounge that size with those proposed hours of operation is okay. The kicker to me was the ideal of having patio that is located a few feet away from a residential neighborhood!

It has also been very clear that most people in Eagle Rock are PRO BUSINESS and (that includes the people against Fat dog) and like seeing the changes in the neighborhood.
It’s funny how there are at least 4 new restaurants coming to Eagle Rock that are ahead of the Fat Dog Loung. I guess the question is how come these restaurants do not have such an outcry from the neighborhood? The answer is very simple because they are acting responsible and want to be apart of the neighborhood and not against it.
I was however very embarrassed to see how the board members on the Land Use committee acted. I could not believe the incompetency of these board members who didn’t even know how to vote!
Thank god that these board members only make a recommendation to the ERNC.
again the overwhelming support from the community was against the Fat Dog lounge was pretty impressive. Both meetings had easily over 90% against the fat dog lounge.
If the Land Use board recommends fat dog go through with the same hours of operation, size, patio etc…then we’ll all know something is really fishy.

26 Rachel Braver May 30th, 2007, 9:29am

Hi it’s Rachel from GLAD. I just noticed that the link on your website to GLAD is to our Tri-County website address. Can you please revise it to be our Eagle Rock main page—www.gladinc.org.

Thanks again for the coverage!
Rachel

27 TK May 11th, 2008, 12:19pm

Just came across this and thought you might be interested in checking out Fat Dog which opened in Montrose instead to see if it was as you had thought it would be and be able to see in hindsight if your concerns were founded. I have not been, but from some of the online reviews, people seem to like it’s neighborhood feel. FWIW, not all liked the food, but no one commented even remotely that it had a club feel to it. My guess is it was a lot closer to the kind of place that Amie, who started these comments was hoping it would be (and begin to burnish for property values), and less like the Magnolia example cited by many of the objections. Not having been at the meetings, this was likely a failing of those presenting on behalf of Fat Dog for not clearly stating that it would be different from Magnolia and only citing that as testament to their having experience in the bar/restaurant space.

If true, it is Montrose’s gain.

Peace,

TK

28 Betsy October 28th, 2008, 11:54am

Thanks for writing this.

29 Jojo November 2nd, 2008, 5:16pm

I went to the Fat Dog in Montrose last night for the first time. I went with some friends who live in Montrose, about two blocks away, and go there about once a week. It was a great place with lounge-like atmosphere but felt more like a neighborhood bar. It was an all around comfortable place to have a bite to eat and a drink. I had the calamari, which was very tasty. My friends have tried most of the items on the menu and they said they have enjoyed everything they have tried. Since it was Saturday night it got a bit crowded but never felt like a “club” scene. My friends who live in Montrose said they are very happy the Fat Dog came to town and it was just what their little community needed.