"If you have a lease, if you have an agreement with someone and can share that with our attorney, we will have a conversation with the prospective leasee and we can make a judgement as to whether that license should be renewed," Mayor Vic Deluca told the owners of the site at last week's Township Committee meeting.
But he also stressed, "The Township Committee based on my conversations with the members are not in a position to change our decision from the last meeting."
At that last meeting, on June 23, the TC voted to reject the renewal request from Masoud Kian, who owns the property at 5 Highland Pl. and has also owned the liquor license that he purchased last year from the restaurant's former owner, Chris Farrow.
Farrow initially lost the license after failing to pay taxes, which prompted him to shutdown the restaurant in August 2014. The license was to have been auctioned off by the state, but the auction was cancelled after Kian and Farrow indicated a deal to have it transferred.
Kian said at the time he wanted to lease the space to someone who would run the business and utilize the liquor license. But his attorney, Nelson Montiero, told the TC last month he has been unable to do so. That is when the governing body voted to deny the renewal.
But both Kian and Montiero were back last week asking for a reconsideration and stating that they were in talks with someone to lease the space and utilize the license.
"Subsequent to this meeting, we have had very fruitful conversations with a prospective restaurateur who has a restaurant in Mountainside and I believe that deal will com to fruition," Montiero told the TC.
Deluca said they would reconsider if they were shown proof of a deal and specific details that a new tenant would be able to run the restaurant space. "Let's work this out," the mayor said.
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