Bellaire Council Approves Cafe in Park

A small, new “cafe-counter” style restaurant designed to serve visitors to Bellaire’s new Evelyn’s Park was approved by the Bellaire City Council Monday, but not without a lengthy discussion about restroom and parking facilities.
The first phase of the design plan for the park includes the new cafe.
The 430-square foot cafe will be located in the historic yellow house in the southwest corner of the 5-acre park site, which is the former home of the Teas Nursery. The house once served as the home of the Teas family, who started the nursery in Bellaire in 1843.
The city of Bellaire now owns the property, which was recently donated to the city by the Evelyn’s Park Conservancy and the Rubenstein Foundation. The park is being named for Evelyn Rubenstein. The park is located at 4400 Bellaire Blvd., at Newcastle Drive.
Graham Beach, of Lake/Flato Architects, and Scott McCready. of SWA Group, showed the city council the designs for the small cafe. It will be designed to seat 20 to 24 people inside, with an entryway, outdoor porch for about eight to 10 customers.
Chris Tripoli, president of A’La Carte Foodservice Consulting Group, has been hired to select the cafe operator. The cafe will include two separate kitchens, including one for catering large events at the park.
Beach and McCready explained that the cafe is designed to accommodate park-goers, who may stop into the restaurant for a coffee or drink, and a snack, to enjoy while they are visiting the park space. The tiny cafe will have one, uni-sex restroom.
They have proposed a larger seating area to the north of the cafe, a shade pavilion designed to seat about 30 people. That area will sit between an office and event center, with two large restrooms.
The architects also explained that they have designed 29 parking spaces to serve the 5-acre park. There will also be 12 bicycle-parking racks.
Councilman Andrew Friedberg expressed serious reservations about the small number of parking spaces provided for the cafe and the park. Although the city has an agreement with the Bellaire United Methodist Church to use their parking lot for special events, Friedberg said. “The natural place people are going to go is into the neighborhood.”
Friedberg said he wanted to assure “future flexibility” in the first phase of construction at the park — to insure that “we don’t paint ourselves into a corner.” He suggested that the first phase of construction not include any “cost-prohibitive” elements that couldn’t be torn out to provide future parking.
Councilman Gus Pappas expressed concern about the single restroom in the small cafe. But he cast the only vote in favor of that amendment to the design plan.
Councilman Jim Avioli continued to press his concern about the lack of an environmental assessment for the parkland, because there is an underground storage tank on the property. Although the Evelyn’s Park Conservancy is conducting an environmental assessment, Avioli said he has been asking about the environmental condition of the property for the last three years.
“I really hope my concerns are unfounded,” Avioli said. “I do not support anything until I’ve seen a clean environmental assessment or abatement (plan).”
The council approved the design plan by a 5-2 vote, with Pappas and Avioli opposed.
The council also reached a formal agreement with Bellaire United Methodist Church, which will allow the city to use the church’s parking lot during special events at the park. The church, in return, will be allowed to use the park for four church-related activities each year.