The Common Council met 03/05/2024. Two of the items they separated out for individual votes were alcohol licenses, one for the Pizzeria Pub and Bar run by Satbir Singh and one for Bunnies on the Ave run by Luis Santiago Ledezma. Each of these items were approved by votes of 11 to 2 with Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) voting no on each license, Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) voting against the Pizzeria license, and Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) voting against the Bunnies on the Ave license.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
PIZZERIA PUB AND BAR – The Safety and Licensing Committee on 02/26/2025 had dealt with three items related to Mr. Singh. Those included not only the alcohol license application for Pizzeria Pub and Bar, which they approved, but also an amusement device license which they denied because he had indicated his intention to install illegal gambling machines on the premises. Additionally, they also held a demerit point violation appearance for Mr. Sing pertaining to an incident at a gas station and convenience store he owned in which there was no license operator on the premises and alcohol was sold to a minor.
During the committee meeting, Alderperson Doran voted against granting the alcohol license given that Mr. Singh already had 120 demerit points for violations on his other alcohol license and he tried to license illegal gambling devices.
During the Council meeting, he reiterated his concerns, saying, “I understand we have we have mechanisms to deal with demerit point violations, but I think it’s incumbent upon the committee and this council as grantees of these licenses to be very judicious in how we—or careful in how we grant these licenses to operators who we are confident are going to follow the laws and regulations that we have in place. It is much easier for us to not issue a license than it is for us to take one back, and these violations, these three things together, give me enough pause to not want to grant this license.”
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) agreed that it was more difficult to take a license away than to not grant one, but she felt the license for the Pizzeria should be considered separately from the violations at the other business. Additionally, she thought that the application for an amusement device license for the illegal gambling machines had been requested in good faith and that the applicant wanted to follow the law.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) thought that mistakes happen and if the business was caught doing something illegal they could handle it at that time.
The Council voted 11-2 to grant the license with Alderpersons Doran and Van Zeeland voting against it.
BUNNIES ON THE AVE – Bunnies on the Ave is the business taking over the space formerly occupied by Speakeasy Ultra Lounge. During the Safety and Licensing Committee meeting on 02/26/2025 Alderperson Doran voted against the alcohol license for the business because the owner had a recent alcohol license violation pertaining to a different business he owned.
It took me a while to find the actual case Alderperson Doran was referring to because the owner sometimes goes by the last name Santiago, sometime the last name Ledezma, and sometimes the last name Santiago Ledezma, but, at any rate, I have confirmed that he was convicted for a 02/25/2024 violation of not having a licensed operator on the premises of the El Sabor restaurant.
The item was not really discussed during the Council meeting and Alderperson Doran only briefly reiterated that he had similar concerns about granting this license as he had for granting the license to Pizzeria Pub and Bar.
While trying to clarify when and where the violation happened, I reached out to Alderperson Doran and when he responded he provided a little more detail about his concerns, writing:
“I am very uncomfortable with the idea of granting a license to an applicant that has previous violations related to alcohol. While I can grant that mistakes happen, they usually happen because of a decision in questionable judgement, or ignorance of the law and neither of those things are good qualities that give me peace of mind to approve such a huge responsibility.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in the seeming lack of concern showed by the committee and council to either of the applicants from the council meeting this week.
“The idea that we have the demerit system in place to deal with issues, is an admission that the council isn’t concerned about preventing issues from happening, rather they’re comfortable in being reactive to problems after they’ve occurred.”
The Council voted 11-2 to grant the license with Alderpersons Doran and Hartzheim voting against.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1254913&GUID=C260C405-73BE-44C1-AB5D-0E14FB8294A8
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