New, popular Bristol Street restaurant Halal Guys wants to stay open later

Owners of the recently opened but already-popular Halal Guys in Costa Mesa are seeking permission to stay open as late as 1 a.m., though neighbors of the restaurant’s Bristol Street shopping center are protesting the move.

Before opening earlier this month, the roughly 1,400-square-foot, Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant at 3033 Bristol St., off Paularino Avenue, requested even later operating hours, but was rejected in September by a city zoning administrator.

The administrator contended that Halal Guys’ original request to close daily at 3 a.m. — four hours longer than its 11 p.m. closing time now — would be incompatible with the area.

“The extended hours requested by Halal Guys will not adversely affect the other businesses with regard to noise or parking, since most will already be closed,” according to a city staff report explaining the denial. “However, they will potentially adversely affect nearby residential properties.”

The report notes resident concerns about noise, traffic and the potential for other restaurants to stay open until 3 a.m.

Halal Guys has appealed the decision and has since changed its request for a 1 a.m. closing, Thursday through Saturday. The matter is scheduled to go before the Planning Commission on Monday.

If approved by the commissioners, the 1 a.m. closing time would be among the latest at the center. Two other restaurants are permitted to stay open until 1 a.m.

Costa Mesa’s Halal Guys is the New York-based chain’s first on the West Coast. Customers have reported wait times of several hours. Pictures on the location’s Facebook page show long lines wrapping around the shopping center.

The restaurant was so busy Sunday, it ran out of food and had to quit serving by dinner time.

In a statement to the Daily Pilot, Thomas Pham, Halal Guys’ franchisee for Southern California, said the chain “is proud to have chosen such an energetic and involved community to represent [its] first West Coast restaurant and we respect local residents’ concerns.”

Pham said the Bristol Street center will have on-site security “to deter any situations that could be a noise nuisance to neighboring homes during late-night operations at the center. Additionally, we are not serving alcohol and this is a quick-service restaurant, so we anticipate guests ordering food and either eating inside or taking it to go.”

City Hall received 11 letters protesting Halal Guys’ request and one in favor.

Susan A. Thompson, who lives hear the restaurant, wrote that the 3 a.m. closure will draw in those who don’t care about disrupting the neighborhood or are “unable to hear the decibel of their voices.”

“Nothing good happens at 3 a.m. in the morning,” she wrote,” and I do not want my home to be next to it!”

Lisa Price lives about three blocks away from Halal Guys, in the Pentridge Cove condominium complex off Baker Street.

She said the complex has always had parking problems, with patrons of popular Sobeca District venues using it, but since Halal Guys opened, the situation has worsened.

In an interview Tuesday, Price described seeing Halal Guys customers parking in the complex’s guest spots and fire lanes. This past weekend, from outside her bedroom window, she also overheard four people, Halal Guys food containers in hand, complaining about the restaurant’s long wait.

One of them urinated on a garage door, Price said, and some of them littered as well.

“It is really impacting safety and our security ... and the fact that they want to extend their hours is even more insulting,” Price said. “We put up with enough around here. This is just the straw that’s breaking the camel’s back.”