Emagine's Restaurant Switch Irks Birmingham Leaders

BIRMINGHAM, MI — Owners of the Emagine Palladium theater in downtown Birmingham have raised the ire of city leaders over changes to its restaurant. Emagine Entertainment replaced the Ironwood Grill with “Four Story Burger” last year, but failed to notify the city of the move in a timely fashion.

Emagine CEO Paul Glantz failed to attend meetings in April and earlier in May to resolve the issue. Now the Birmingham City Commission is telling Glantz and Emagine Entertainment to appear before them on June 28, or risk losing their Special Land Use Permit with the city — a big deal because the business can’t serve alcohol without it.

“We seem to be involved in a tug of war,” City Commissioner Patty Bordman said at the last scheduled hearing on May 8, according to the Birmingham Eccentric. “The city’s tugging and the business is tugging back. So the question is: Why are we engaged in this tug of war? It seems to me that one of the big reasons is the commission has felt the business has not given the type of care toward city ordinances that it should have been giving — and it’s been reinforced by the owners failing to appear when they’ve been asked to appear.”

All restaurants serving alcohol in Birmingham operate under a SLUP agreement that’s reviewed annually by the city commission, the newspaper reported. The SLUP provides the city with a legal mechanism to quickly shutter a business if there are ongoing problems with the operation.

One of the conditions of the agreement calls for city approval whenever there's a substantial change to the operation. That includes changes to the name of a restaurant and its menu, the Eccentric reported.

“Mr. Glantz has appeared at many meetings,” Commissioner Rackeline Hoff told the newspaper. “He has a sense of how serious we take this.”

The Emagine theater is located in the Palladium Building at 250 N. Old Woodward. Jon Goldstein, owner of the Maple Theater and a partner in the Emagine Palladium, did attend the May meeting. He told the Eccentric Glantz has nothing to do with the restaurant operation, and that it was his mistake for not notifying the city about the restaurant change.

“He really had nothing to do with the change in the restaurant,” Goldstein told the commission. “I’ve sat in front of this commission and I’ve taken responsibility for the error that was made with the SLUP amendment — you guys gave it to me pretty good at the beginning of March. I listened to everything that you told me, and I took it very seriously.”

Commissioner Stuart Sherman said Goldstein spoke from a different script at an April meeting. Sherman told the Eccentric that Glantz was previously recognized as the person who pulled the trigger on the restaurant change.

"That’s part of the reason we wanted both of them to be here,” Sherman told the newspaper. One can’t say the other did it. This is the only way to really get to the bottom of what was going, and whether to approve this Special Land Use Permit."

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