COSTA MESA : City Opposes Permit for Bar on Santa Isabel

Trang Nguyen said she understands the city’s concerns about crime on Newport Boulevard, which is why her restaurant there cannot serve alcohol.

But when she tried to convert her other restaurant, Madeleine’s on Santa Isabel Avenue, to a bar, she was surprised that the city sent a letter to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control asking them to deny her request.

“I have a clean record,” Nguyen said.

But city officials said they and the police don’t want Madeleine’s to serve liquor, and some residents have objected to Nguyen’s proposal.

The restaurant on Santa Isabel is near Newport Boulevard and close to where a bar called Dick’s Horseshoe once stood.

Dick’s, which closed several years ago under pressure from city and state authorities, had been the site of numerous assaults and frequent public disturbances, said Perry Valantine, Costa Mesa’s planning director.

Because of that, Valantine said, the city is concerned that allowing another bar in the same general location might bring crime back to the neighborhood.

A final decision on Nguyen’s request will come from the state beverage control, which has not yet set a date for action.