Agoura Bistro to add entertainment to menu

Happy hour, live entertainment and maybe even dancing are coming to the Agoura Bistro and Wine Bar.

The Agoura Hills planning commission has agreed to new uses at the lounge, located in the Reyes Adobe Plaza on Canwood Street.

Carlos Orozco, owner of the Bistro, applied for a conditional use permit and the panel considered the request at its public hearing Nov. 16.

To accommodate live entertainment, Orozco will use a secondary entry to the restaurant and bar and convert the entry closest to Canwood Street into the entertainment area.

The commissioners wanted Orozco to limit the planned entertainment to the existing sound system since the main entry to the restaurant is located 335 feet from the Stone Crest residential neighborhood.

Orozco persuaded the panel that the limits on sound equipment limitation were not feasible. "I don't know what kind of equipment they'll bring," Orozco said. To lessen the impact he said he could separate the speakers.

"If it's too loud, we'll hear about it," Commissioner Steve Rishoff said.

Entertainment will be geared to people 30 years and older, Orozco said. "I don't want a younger crowd."

The bistro and bar will also launch a happy hour and establish new operating times of operation.

The panel was initially disturbed by the possibility of dancing. Commissioner John O'Meara said he was against dancing at the Bistro because of space limitations.

"Sometimes people want to dance," Orozco said, agreeing to move the entry to add more room to the entertainment area.

O'Meara asked if a prohibition on dancing would be enforceable. Doug Hooper, assistant planning and community development director, said such a restriction would not be proactively enforced. He said if dancing caused enough of a disturbance to compel people to complain, the city could then reconsider Orozco's permit.

O'Meara jokingly asked if the city had "dance police." Commissioner Phil Ramuno suggested reviewing the permit in six months.

The panel unanimously passed the conditional use permit request.