Problems at the now-closed Krobar plagued the city for more than a year. In 2005 and the early part of 2006, police made more than 120 arrests or citations at the bar or in the parking area outside bar. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

Last call for Krobar
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published August 9, 2006

Last call has apparently been made at the controversial Krobar bar in the shopping plaza by Lorain and Stearns roads.

On Aug. 1, North Olmsted City Council unanimously approved transferring the liquor license from Trimus LLS to Laya Lena Cuisine, which officials said will be using it for a restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern food in the Bentley-Coe Plaza on Lorain Road.

Michael Gareau Jr., chairman of city council’s Building, Zoning and Development Committee, said the new restaurant should be an improvement.

“It should be nice because it will be located by the China Renaissance Restaurant,” Gareau said. “With the new one’s Middle Eastern food, we should be able to walk through the plaza and have some nice choices for international food in that area. This takes care of the problems with the Krobar while also bringing in a unique new restaurant to the city.”

Problems at the old Krobar plagued the city for more than a year — in 2005 and the early part of this year police made more than 120 arrests or citations at the bar or in the parking area outside bar. In addition to incidents dealt with by regular patrol officers, the police department several times sent special details to the bar area to deal with underage drinking and what several people termed out of control conduct by underage youngsters on teen nights at the facility.

Complaints by people about the problems with youths also prompted city council and Mayor Thomas O’Grady’s administration to draw stricter legislation governing teen nights and dance clubs. After weeks of discussions, council ultimately recommended not  approving the liquor license for potential new owner Mark Hammond, who was set to take final control of the bar from Trimus. City officials and Hammond had the hearing before the state liquor control board on the city’s objection postponed as they worked on an agreement and the new legislation in an attempt to get the problems under control. However, Hammond ultimately decided not to keep control of the bar and let control revert to the previous owner.

City officials are glad to see the change.

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said all the attention on problems at the Krobar helped bring about the solution.

“People certainly became aware of the problems,” O’Grady said. “You don’t want to see people dropping their children off there or getting involved in problems. Certainly the scrutiny from the community and the news media helped deal with this.”

Safety Director Tom Terbrack said the legislation enacted by council will help.

“It should help prevent that type of situation from developing again,” Terbrack said. “The law department and other officials all worked hard to make it happen.”

Terbrack said there was an inquiry a few weeks ago from a businessman about locating a teen-oriented business in the Krobar location. He said the businessman did not want a liquor permit but also noted he has not heard back from the businessman since city officials responded with some information about the site.

Other officials were just glad the problems with the Krobar are over.

“Just about everybody will be glad to see it go,” said Larry Orlowski, chairman of council’s safety committee. “There were just too many problems for a business.”

Captain Kevin Whelan, the operations commander for the city police, said not having the Krobar will aid the department.

“We had to allocate a lot of resources to deal with issues that weren’t necessary,” Whelan said. “You don’t want to have to deal with those problems. There were youths coming into North Olmsted because of what was going on there for a time. But we were able to deal with the problems, and the legislation passed by council should help stop this from developing again.”

Law Director Jim Dubelko said the laws were designed to give the city the ability to work with businesses at preventing problems with teen-agers and adults alike at dance clubs.

“We checked with different communities and tried to put together laws which would work at curbing problems,” Dubelko said.