North County Report: No Permit? No Dancing In Encinitas Restaurants

By Tigist Layne, the Voice of San Diego

August 1, 2024

In 2018, national news outlets began likening the city of Encinitas to the 1984 film “Footloose” starring Kevin Bacon.

If you haven’t seen the movie, Kevin Bacon’s character, Ren McCormack, moves to a small town where dancing and rock music are banned. Then, he and the community work together to win back the freedom to dance.

It turns out, Encinitas has its own “Footloose”-esque rules about dancing that have been around for almost 40 years.

In 1986, Encinitas passed a law requiring bars and restaurants that sell alcohol to obtain a special permit to allow customers to dance. It’s called a major-use permit.

If such establishments fail to get the proper permit, they could face fines from the city, as well as from state regulatory agencies that work with cities to enforce permits.

In 2017, Encinitas began stepping up enforcement of the ordinance in an effort to crack down on unruly behavior at some restaurants and bars in downtown Encinitas and throughout the city.

This crackdown put more restrictions on restaurants and bars that sell alcohol, including limiting the number of musicians allowed to perform on a stage at one time and controlling what days and hours a restaurant or bar can operate or have live music.

Lois Yum, assistant to the Encinitas city manager, wasn’t specific about how recently the city has had to enforce these rules, but she told Voice via email that there have been enforcement efforts in the last few years. She added that establishments have been cooperative, and, on the city’s part, no penalties have been given.

She also said there are still permits being issued to businesses with these kinds of restrictions in place. But how the city goes about issuing permits and what each permit allows depends on the individual business.

We’re looking back at some not-so-distant Encinitas history to see how these rules have impacted local businesses.

Several years ago, one Encinitas restaurant learned about the city’s dancing limitations the hard way. In 2018, Mr. Peabody’s Bar and Grill received a citation from the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) accompanied by a $3,000 fine after inspectors witnessed people dancing inside the restaurant.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control oversees and enforces the regulations surrounding alcohol sales and distribution, as well as permits issued by cities. The agency typically works with local governments to make sure businesses are complying.

Mr. Peabody’s opened in 2001 and has been putting on live music shows for most of its existence. The restaurant had the necessary permits to put on live music shows, but it didn’t have the necessary permits to allow its customers to dance to the music.

The restaurant owner Brie Cardosa told the Coast News at the time that their reputation took a hit because of the rule. Customers didn’t like being told to stop dancing, especially customers who had been frequenting Mr. Peabody’s live shows for several years before the city’s crackdown.

It prompted Cardosa to start an online petition and a social media campaign to gather support from residents and challenge Encinitas’ dancing restrictions. The story was picked up by local and national news outlets, and in 2019, it went before the Encinitas Planning Commission.

“What is this, ‘Footloose?’” asked one longtime Encinitas resident, Lydell Fleming, at the Jan. 17, 2019, Planning Commission meeting.

The commission ultimately voted to grant Mr. Peabody’s a permit that would allow its customers to dance seven nights a week during evening hours.

Now, it’s business, and dancing, as usual at Mr. Peabody’s. But former City Attorney Glenn Sabine said at the time that the city is not setting a precedent for other businesses.

Other restaurants and bars that want to allow dancing must apply for the necessary permit and are not guaranteed acceptance.

The Roxy is a restaurant in downtown Encinitas that opened in 1978, and has hosted nearly 600 music acts a year, according to a report by the Coast News.

But despite its long history in the community, customers at the Roxy weren’t allowed to dance to the music until 2018 when the Encinitas Planning Commission allowed the restaurant to create a small dance floor.

The Roxy’s owners also asked the Commission to increase the number of musicians allowed to perform at the venue and extend its operating hours. But the city only granted part of their request.

The restaurant can now have three performers at a time, with the occasional “sit-in” guest performer. But the Roxy’s request to stay open one hour later at night was denied.

Commissioners said at the time that because of the downtown area’s recent troubles with late-night noise and alcohol-related complaints, they couldn’t allow it to stay open later, even though the Roxy had not been a source of those complaints.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.