ONTERIO IS MAKING BOOKS FUN!

Drop Out Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:21 pm

Books, beer? Ontario Library seeks liquor license

THERE'S A sign in a downtown Ontario window announcing a liquor license application, but it's not at a restaurant: It's at the library.
Well, actually, it's at the restaurant at the library. Page One Cafe is owned by City Hall and operated by SMG, the company that runs the Convention Center.

SMG is requesting a full liquor license that would allow the sale of mixed drinks. If the license is granted, you'll be able to walk a few yards past the library's periodicals section and delve into the hard stuff. And I don't mean Tolstoy.

Is this a great country or what?

Technically, it's not the library. But that's a fine distinction, given that the cafe and library share a building, a wall and an entrance, and that there's a bookcase of cheap volumes for sale inside the cafe to benefit the Friends of the Library.

Imagine, alcohol at a library. Knowledge won't be the only thirst you can quench.

City officials say they haven't heard any complaints and say the restaurant-deprived downtown is in need of a gathering spot for professionals.

What's described sounds very nice.

"We're going to have a wine bar," Bob Brown, president of the Convention Center, told me. He envisions wine pairings and live music in the outdoor plaza, which faces City Hall, the Senior Center and the University of La Verne College of Law.

"We're trying to create a `Cheers'-type environment, but upscale," Brown explained. "We want a place where people can come after work and network."
OK, but at the library? Page One Cafe customers may have to be carded twice.

Once for ID, once for a library card.

(Stick around, I've got more.)

Page One opened in 2006, shortly after the remodeled library, as part of a national trend of library cafes. I've noticed them in L.A. and Boston.

Ontario's is an attractive place, like a coffee house, with a soaring ceiling and high tables.

The food has gone from poor to pretty good. Brown and I went there for lunch on Monday. Because I paid my own way to avoid being influenced by a free lunch, I can report honestly that I was pleasantly surprised by the much-expanded menu and my $6.95 panini sandwich.

The menu now boasts daily soups and specials, salads, sandwiches and pizza, not to mention Starbucks coffee - the cafe is the closest thing to a Starbucks downtown - and a Healthy Ontario menu of lighter items. (You can read more about the food on my blog.)

"We've hit our stride with it," Brown said proudly. SMG food service employees staff the cafe.

By 12:30 p.m., most of the tables were occupied and there was a line at the counter, including recognizable faces from City Hall. The cafe is almost like an employee cafeteria that's open to the public.

"Originally the city people here downtown were the most critical and the most vocal. But as we changed the menu, we turned the corner," Brown told me between bites of his patty melt.

A city employee named Jackie, who didn't want to tell me her last name, was enjoying a roast beef sandwich and a small Caesar salad. She eats there almost every day.

"Before there was nothing hot," she said of the menu. "They've come a long way."

Karen DeVrieze, the code enforcement director, was focused more on the cafe's Starbucks coffee than on any possible code violations.

"The menu, the selection and the food has improved greatly," DeVrieze told me.

One reason the cafe is prospering - it's breaking even or making a small profit, Brown said - is because downtown has so few dining options.

Apparently nothing will happen downtown without City Hall pushing it. First it was the apartment and condo projects and now a city-owned cafe and wine bar.

Oh, yeah, the wine bar. The liquor license may be approved in the next month by Alcoholic Beverage Control officials in Sacramento, Brown said.

(Usually the only ABC you hear about at the library is the alphabet.)

Brown foresees a small permanent bar and a portable bar that can go outside on the enclosed patio for mixers and other events. Even though the license would allow hard liquor, Brown said that won't happen immediately, if ever.

"I want to make small strides with this," Brown said.

Minutes earlier, our attention had been caught by a down on his luck guy in line at the counter. Already wearing sweatpants, he pulled a pair of sweatshorts out of a bag and put them on over his pants while standing in line. The shorts were so loose they fell past his knees until he hoisted them back up.

He paid for his purchase with a pocketful of change he placed on the counter.

"We get some of that," Brown whispered. "It's not a problem."

I wouldn't foresee major issues from a wine bar, especially one that closes at 9 p.m. most nights and 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. But I don't see how a wine bar helps the library.

Well, unless lowered inhibitions cause library patrons to check out more books.

Al Boling, the assistant city manager, said the Police Department is in support of the application, as is the library.

Judy Evans, the library director, told me the cafe is a positive addition and that her staff eats there "all the time." But she referred questions about the alcohol license to Boling.

Are you OK with having alcohol there, I persisted?

"I'm not going to go there," Evans said.

That doesn't sound like a "yes."