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Dogfish Head gets second hearing on brewpub rebuild

James Fisher
The News Journal

Dogfish Head will get a second chance at convincing Rehoboth Beach it deserves a size-of-building exemption so it might renovate its flagship brewpub on Rehoboth Avenue.

Dogfish Head went back to the Board of Adjustment Monday night, asking it to reconsider allowing the Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats restaurant, brew room and distillery to expand by about 1,500 feet and replace its aging building. The company's plans would take the gross area of the building from 8,280 square feet to 9,820 square feet.

In asking to do a complete remodel, Dogfish Head is coming under the scope of a 5,000-square-foot size cap on restaurants for the first time, so it needs an exemption from the board.

At an April 27 hearing, the board voted 3-1 against the plan, saying that the project was too big for the site. On Monday, though, the board voted 4-1 to take up the request again. Charles Donohue cast the sole "no" vote. It will be June, at the earliest, before the board can hold the second hearing.

Dogfish Head Brewing and Eats located at 320 Rehoboth Avenue in downtown Rehoboth Beach.

The board caused a fury among local business owners and Dogfish fans worldwide when one member, Clif Hilderley, suggested at the first hearing that Dogfish Head move "out of town." Owners Sam and Mariah Calagione opened the flagship Dogfish Head restaurant in 1995; their enterprise has grown to become the country's 13th largest craft brewery.

"It's very satisfying to see that cooler heads prevailed, and we look forward to the opportunity to re-present our case to the board with the proper numbers," Dogfish Head CEO Nick Benz said after the board's vote.

The company argued in its motion for a second hearing that in truth, only 6,813 square feet of what it wants to build is "devoted to restaurant purposes," minimizing how much it was stretching the code to fit its plans. The board latched onto that recalculation in deciding a new hearing was appropriate.

Donohue, the board member who did not vote for a rehearing, said the brewery was still asking for 36 percent more restaurant space than the law allows. "For those reasons and many others I'm not going to enumerate here, I vote against the motion for a rehearing," Donohue said.

Dogfish Head's motion for reconsideration also argued the board set a decisive precedent in 2008 when it approved a request from Nicola Pizza, a beloved pie-and-stromboli restaurant, to open a brand-new, 15,000-square-feet restaurant closer to the beach than Dogfish Head is.

A designer’s sketch of a proposed renovation of the Dogfish Head brewpub in Rehoboth Beach is shown.

Other restauranteurs have taken on Rehoboth's Board of Adjustment over space issues and won, but at great cost. Darius Mansoory, the owner of Rehoboth's nearby Stingray Sushi Bar + Asian Latino Grill restaurant, spent three years in court fighting for the right to build a 720-square-footpatio after the board denied his request for a variance.

The state Supreme Court eventually ruled in Mansoory's favor in December 2013, but the legal dispute was costly, he said.

Mansoory said he spent "six digits plus, and then some" in legal fees for the right to build a 28-seat patio. It is not known how much Rehoboth officials spent in legal fees.

"The whole case was unnecessary," said the restaurant owner who has owned the Latin-Asian fusion restaurant on Lake Avenue since 2008. "It was such a waste of time and effort."

If Dogfish Head eventually wins a size-limit exception, it will still have to get further building approvals from the town before construction can begin, Benz said Monday.

Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com. Staff writer Patricia Talorico contributed to this story.