Tonight's Commission Meeting

Under New Business tonight:

Benny's Lease will be reviewed
Payment of rent in through possibly May 2020;  Provisions addressing potential COVID-19 restrictions which may include:  Rent deferment; and/or,  Rent abatement. While the City retains the absolute discretion as to whether to amend the Lease with Benny’s, City staff is supportive of the considering the amendment in view of its good Fiscal Impact Analysis - n/a Second Amendment (to be provided upon conclusion of negotiations) working relationship with Benny’s and Lee Lipton’s desire to take over and renovate Mulligan’s.

Mulligans Lake Worth acquisition--
The Second Amendment to the Retail Lease with Mulligans Lake Worth Acquisition, LLC (“Mulligans”), seeks authorization from the City to assign the Lease to NUSTART, LLC, for use as a Mexican restaurant with related amendments to the Lease’s term, rent and related provisions.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION: On March 19, 2012, the City and Mulligans entered a retail lease for Units #7 and #8 at the Lake Worth Beach Municipal Casino Building (“Lease”). On January 19, 2016, the City and Mulligan’s amended the Lease to allow Mulligan’s to be acquired by a third party with George Hart remaining involved and as a guarantor. In April 2020, NUSTART, LLC’s owner, Lee Lipton (current owner of Benny’s at the Beach), contacted the City about an assignment of the Lease in order to renovate the premises for the operation of a Mexican restaurant. Consistent with the prior assignment of this Lease and other Casino Tenant leases

A Mexican restaurant would be a real winner.

Pancakes at Mulligans

This morning, Katie and I went to Mulligans for their 10 cent pancakes. We ordered two pancakes, bacon and coffee. The total bill was $10.15 for both of us...can't beat that!

Katie and I both knew what we wanted--no indecision here!

Mulligans tries to shift responsibility for Grease Trap spill

Page 1 news is now on page 9 of the Palm Beach Post--

Whose responsibility is it to pay for the clean-up?

"Restaurant says it will share costs of grease spill cleanup"

Mulligans says it is partly the city's fault because of the ballroom upstairs. Just one problem--that little kitchen is only a prep facility--they don't fry food. Mulligans says it is the city's responsibility per their lease to maintain the grease traps. Normally I would think there is probably something to that as the city maintains NOTHING. However, under a typical Repair and Maintenance section of our restaurant merchants' leases, it is the tenant's responsibility to maintain and repair grease traps. It would be hard to imagine that Mulligans was given an exception.  City Manager Bornstein says maintaining the grease traps is a condition of their permit.

More on the Grease Spill at the Casino

PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE UPON RECEIPT

CITY OF LAKE WORTH
10 SOUTH OCEAN BOULEVARD
LAKE WORTH, FL 33460
LAKEWORTH.ORG

February 21, 2017

Contact: Ben Kerr, Communications Specialist
Phone: 561.586.1631
Email: BKerr@lakeworth.org

WHAT: MULLIGANS’ GREASE TRAP FAILURE AND CLEANUP
WHEN: FEBRUARY 19th & 20th, 2017
WHERE: MULLIGANS RESTAURANT - CITY OF LAKE WORTH CASINO BUILDING

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Lake Worth, Florida- On February 19, 2017 at 5:00pm the City was informed by staff of Mulligan’s Beach House Restaurant in the Lake Worth Casino building that the Mulligans’ grease trap was overflowing. At 5:30pm further inspection revealed a more serious problem and a City vacuum truck was dispatched to vacuum out the grease trap. During this process the parking lot in that area was cleared to allow clean up to take place.

The following day (February 20) at 06:00am the City dispatched a street sweeper and vacuum truck to carry out the next stage of clean-up. Shortly after 5:00pm it was reported that the vacuum process had failed and the grease trap began to overflow again, this time after the trap was emptied a plumber was brought in by Mulligan’s who discovered that the sewer outflow pipe was clogged with grease due to improper maintenance. The outflow pipe has now been jetted and the grease trap is fully serviceable again.

The City is continuing with clean-up and will be bringing in hazardous waste specialists to assist in ensuring any environmental impact is minimized.

Chapter 14 of the Utilities; and Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM-W) for the Water/Wastewater Utility Department states that commercial and industrial facilities must demonstrate monthly maintenance on grease traps to remove fats, oils and greases as a condition of their annual Fat, Oil and Grease Permit.

At this time no decision has been made regarding who will incur the cost of clean-up. An investigation into this event is being undertaken by the City. Recommendations will be issued to ensure that such a problem does not occur again.

Please contact Ben Kerr, the City of Lake Worth Communications Specialist with any questions or comments.

Grease spill from Mulligans at the Lake Worth beach to A1A

Photo contributed to the PBPost

Read about humongous grease spill at
the Lake Worth beach

This is an important article. It was relegated to page 4 in the Local section of the PBPost. It halted traffic for 4 hours and was an environmental nightmare.

Today at our wonderful Lake Worth beach

Rainy day at Lake Worth beach

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Friday afternoon at Lake Worth beach

Yesterday at the Lake Worth beach

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Gorgeous day--the ocean was calm; the parking lot was packed--stopped at Benny's first and there was a 40 minute wait at 1:30. Went down to Mulligans and the lunch was fantastic. Kilwin's was very busy selling ice cream cones and lucious candy.  Mamma Mia's was crowded. Ran into friends and one was celebrating her birthday. BarbaraJean modeled a hat at Lake Worth Tee Shop.

Mulligan's Beach House Bar and Grill at the Lake Worth beach

Breakfast this morning at  Mulligan's

Friendly and efficient staff

So what's new?

This was Meet the Chef Day. Carlos Velasquez came over and greeted us and asked if there was anything he could do to make our visit more enjoyable. Great PR. It is this type of attitude that brings back customers. We enjoyed meeting Carlos. This was a first that a Chef made us feel welcomed and invited us back.

Getting ready for the football!

Mulligan's and Lake Worth

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On  November 30, 2012,  the lawyers for Mulligan's Beach House restaurant wrote what they describe as "a more formal letter" to The City of Lake Worth regarding safety, liability and security issues:

No lighting
Dangerous and excessive Construction debris
Lack of Security
Dirt roads
No Parking

Originally, the parking lots and the beach redevelopment were to coordinate with the casino timeline. It hasn't and even the Lake Worth City Manager, Michael Bornstein admitted in a public meeting that they are way behind. Mulligan's states that through numerous discussions and correspondence, none of these issues have been resolved and they are afraid of potential liability because of the aforementioned problems and the City's failure to solve and/or install. Therefore, they are asking for one-half rent during this construction period until the property is made safe and functional.

In response, the city in a letter of December 7th said, "Mulligan's entered its Lease and opened its business with full and actual knowledge of the adjacent, on-going construction project."  In so many words the city told them it's their problem. George Hart, the owner, "refuses to believe that the City set him up for failure" and asked for another meeting to resolve the matter.

In the meantime, all of us are wondering when these parking lots will be completed and safe for all of us. Here it is high Season and we are driving through obstacle courses just to get to the beach. Of course a top priority of yesteryear, the Jungle Jim for little Junior, is in place while a senior citizen, looking for the parking meter in the dark, falls through the bushes breaking open her face.

Mulligan's at Lake Worth Beach

Have a little X'mas cheer at Mulligans.

Review on Mulligan's restaurant

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Mulligan's Review

Parking dangers at Lake Worth beach

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See Mark Parrilla and City Manager Bornstein speaking out.

View the video...

Previous blog

Palm Beach County Restaurant Ratings

John G's still rated TOPS. Mulligan's on Lake Worth beach rated 53 out of 83.

Read more...

Letter from Mulligan's to the City of Lake Worth

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From: Mary Hoertz [mullymary@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 4:53 PM
To: City Manager; Christopher McVoy; Dana Nichols; Elaine Humphreys; johnkuntzman@lakeworth.org; kmargoles@lakeworth.org; mayor@lakeworth.org; Pamela Lopez; Scott Maxwell; Suzanne Mulvehill; Brad Lukas; Georgina Cid; Jamie Brown; Joel Rutsky; Juan Ruiz; Mary Areson; Matthew Marks; Melissa Anderson; Michael Bornstein; Pam Triolo; Patsy Grissom; William Waters
Subject: Valet Issues

Good Afternoon,
 

We are still having a major issue with valet parking for our guests. We have many elderly guests and guests with children that need to valet park instead of climbing through dirt piles to go eat. Valet have been parking in the empty lot at bottom of hill which has been working very well. They have been able to serve all customers quickly, there are no safety issues and everything has been smooth. Now we are told we can't use that parking lot. What are we to do? The city is making it impossible for us to do business if we don't get these issues resolved. I sent an email over a week ago and have not had any resolutions or responses with any ideas as of yet.

We would really appreciate some effort and considerations to do what is best for the business and vision of the casino project.

Please let us know why the parking lot we have been using is an issue and why can't we use this for the time being to better serve our guests.

Please let us know what we can do about this situation. Thank you,

--

Mary Hoertz

Vice President

Mulligan's Beach House

300 Colorado Ave. #201

Stuart, Fl. 34994

772.600.7377 - ph, 772.600.7379 - fax

mullymary@gmail.com

www.mulligansrestaurant.net

Our new Lake Worth Casino and Mulligan's

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We drove over to our new casino this morning. It is still a challenge to drive to the upper level as the lower parking lot is still under construction. The road in front of the Casino is now completed and you can now exit the beach property by driving north. People are bringing their dogs to our beach property. I guess he missed the sign because one old guy screamed that we didn't know what we were talking about.  (I think I have heard that line before). We saw a few people we knew having breakfast.

Congratulations to Mulligan's and all the friendly employees. Best of luck in your new location at our fabulous Lake Worth Casino.

We are Lake Worth! - It is NOT Lake Worthless!

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From Mark Parrilla--

Several weeks ago, after being hired by the Mulligan's management team, I call Melissa Cox, the hiring manager, and asked for a gift certificate for Carol and Paul Allen to add to a welcome basket I put together for them since they are now officially Lake Worth residents.  I received a call from Melissa and she told me she spoke to George Hart, Owner of Mulligan's Beach House Bar &Grill, and he said he couldn't give me a gift coupon because that was too small a gesture for this disabled couple who lost everything two months ago in a house fire. (thus the Wednesday all day fundraiser for the Allen's)

Dr. Manoj Patel, DDS donated two free brand new sets of dentures; Pam Triolo, our Mayor and her husband Mike cooked and served them a delicious meal at my home and the icing on the cake was the close to $3,000.00 we raised in donations for them yesterday at Mulligan's soft opening.  I have attached video footage of the dinner and the link to Peter Schaller's story of CBS 12 News.  Lake Worth is a great city with some wonderful earthbound angels! We are Lake Worth--not LakeWorthLess.

Mark Parrilla

Channel 12 video

Mulligan's Restaurant

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Private opening today at the new Mulligan's Beach House Bar Grill
Read more... at the PB Post.

Photo by Mark Parrilla

Mulligan's Beach House Bar & Grill on the ocean in Lake Worth

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In just a few weeks, Mulligan's Beach House Bar and Grill (known as Home of the Monster Fish Fry) will be built-out and ready for business at the Lake Worth beach. The seating capacity, including the bar, is 220. Our only hope is that the rain will stop so that the City of Lake Worth can complete the beach redevelopment by the promised time.

The bar at Mulligan's is definitely a focus and has a lighted bar top that looks like a rippling ocean wave. There is a nautical design throughout. Over the bar are 4 hanging high definition television sets. Mulligan's put in a state-of-the art-kitchen and will serve a dozen or more different draft beers.The floors and ceilings are wood and the furniture looks very comfy. There is one section that will be selling Mulligan's t-shirts and other souveniers. Amazingly, there is a great ocean view, far superior than what John G's experienced.

When asked, Ryan Pitman General Manager at Mulligan's in Jensen Beach said, "It is hard to pick a feature that we are most proud of. We have paid a tremendous amount of attention to every little detail from the Wood ceilings to the illuminated Bar top. We are very proud of the whole package as we feel it fits well in the community and on the beach!"

Ryan further stated, "As far as the entrée we feature or would consider the most popular, it would have to be our Monster Fish Fry. It is a giant piece of fried whitefish that you can have a number of different ways, either on a toasty Ciabatta roll, as Fish and Chips, on a Seafood Platter that also includes Calamari and Shrimp, in a Fried Fish Reuben, or as sliders."

Friday at Lake Worth Beach

Everyone is working to meet the challenge of opening on time. Mulligans has pushed back its opening to accommodate Lake Worth. All the wonderful landscaping at the lower level has been ripped out so that we can re-design parking lots and replace it with new landscaping and spend $5 to $7 million on the beach redevelopment. Including the casino, our beach will have one heck of an expensive makeover at the tune of around $13.5 million. We will be charging visitors $2 an hour for this major renovation. We will now have 163 less parking spaces at the upper level, traffic backing into each other but we will have a Swing for little Sally.