Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published February 1, 2007 Click here for the current edition Gabrielle Gets A Break From Its Neighbors The Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association seems to be taking a new, more welcoming stance on the opening of Greg and Mary Sonnier's Gabrielle restaurant in their neighborhood. An e-mail to its members yesterday says that ARNA now is in favor of the restaurant's opening at the corner of Henry Clay and Laurel, where the Sonniers bought what they thought was the perfect building. Although the former Uptowner reception hall had all the necessary licenses to open as a restaurant, a number of neighbors rallied to stop Gabrielle from opening there, saying that the too much time had elapsed for the non-conforming use of the building to be continued. The Sonniers, in their efforts to get the restaurant open, noted that the laws regarding the difference between a reception hall and a restaurant are so ill-defined as to be almost meaningless, and certainly not prohibitive. And they were on the verge of going to court to press the issue. That seems to have brought the two sides together. As a result of negotiation, ARNA is offering a compromise. If Gabrielle keeps to its long-time schedule of five dinners and one lunch a week, serving no more than eighty people at a time, and offers valet parking, they'll back away from their challenge to the restaurant's opening. The valet parking issue is interesting. The two sides agreed that the restaurant would offer the parking service, and charge a fee to every table for that service, whetyher they use it or not. The idea is that this will encourage people to valet park. That addresses the main problem the neighborhood has with the restaurant, which has no off-street parking and will certainly put many cars on surrounding curbs unless some other plan is made. The Sonniers also agreed to wrap things up by midnight every night (except on New Year's Eve), to not give go-cups to departing customers, to not serve drinks to anyone but diners (and those waiting for tables), and to not have video poker (which they never did anyway). They also agreed to have their garbage picked up at reasonable hours. Assuming that the neighbohood gets behind this plan, we could be dining at Gabrielle very soon. Greg told me a few weeks ago that the restaurant is more or less ready to start serving. This is good news. Not only is one of the two or three best Creole-Cajun biostros return to the scene, but the process that facilitated the opening was carried on in a civilized way. We need less screaming around here. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com