DelayWire: The Patio Cafe Fights 10 Years of Stasis

Over the last few months, more than a few people have inquired about the doings at the Patio Cafe, which has been boarded up at 531 Castro for almost a decade. Back in the fall, it came out that owner Les Natali was keeping the name, giving it another go and aiming for a springtime resurrection. He even employed Hasz Construction (Cyrus, Bacar et al.) to remodel the place. Since then, it's been a mess: not only has Natali been fighting over the proper permits, but we're also hearing rumblings of disputes with the contractors. The only thing that Hasz says is that they are still involved, but there's no longer a certain finish date (make your own conclusions). In any event, all this delaywire is upsetting the neighbors:

From the Bay Area Reporter:

More recently, nearby storeowners have complained about the boards covering the entrances to both the Patio storefront and the building next door, where Natali ripped out rainbow-colored stairs to build street level entrances and combined two stores into one retail space.

Natali did not respond to a request for comment this week. Adams said he toured both spaces in March and they looked nearly complete.

"I just want Les to open those places, to open that bar and get those boards down," he said.

We should add that when we took a gander at the space through the plywood, the scene inside was not something that we would describe as "nearly complete." I.e., you might not want to hold your breath on this one.
· New stores raise hopes for Castro revival [BAR]