Last Call at Cyril's?

The crowds of young partyers spilling onto the highway in front of Cyril’s Fish House, in Napeague, have become a kind of (not always welcome) fixture of summer. But this year, they may have to find another spot to drink, hook up, and snarl traffic. As The East Hampton Star reports, last month, the NY State Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the popular watering hole from using its outdoor bar and patio, pending electrical and structural inspections.

The restraining order is the latest development in a baroque ongoing conflict between Cyril’s and the Town of East Hampton. At issue is a long list of alleged building and zoning code violations, as well as disputes over expanded parking and the unauthorized removal of underground gas tanks. Cyril’s is also located in a residential zone, but it is allowed to operate as a restaurant because it was already in business before present zoning rules prohibited it.

Last March, according to 27 East, the East Hampton Town Board sought an injunction against Cyril’s to stop its current roster of alleged code violations; in turn, the Dioguardi family, which owns the site, sought a restraining order against the town.

The new State Supreme Court ruling, issued by Justice Joseph Farneti, says that Cyril’s may not open itself to the public in any form except that which existed in 1984, the year that its zoning was changed from commercial to residential. That would limit it to using only 40 seats in a 300-foot structure with a 120-foot deck.

As the Star reports:

Justice Farneti gave three conditions that could cause him to lift his temporary order — an electrical inspection of the site, a structural inspection report of the front patio area near where the underground tanks were removed, and a structural inspection of the roadside bar — “so that nobody is sitting up at night wondering if this building is going to fall on top of people or if I’m going to be seeing a picture in Newsday of a giant sinkhole with revelers with their umbrellas in their little drinks 10 feet underground. Just a point I’d like to make on the record.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words it looks like the team at Cyril’s has a long way to go before opening day.