LOS ANGELES — Sidewalk eating, a popular pastime in Seattle, is now the subject of a controversy in Madison Park.

The Ethan Stowell restaurant group uses a small plot of land for outdoor dining, but according to some neighbors, this is not the intended use of the space.

The public space known as Triangle Park is located at the intersection of 42nd Avenue and East Madison Street, next to Stowell’s restaurant How to Cook a Wolf.

“A couple of times I’ve grabbed a sandwich, walked over here, sat down and eaten it,” Barbara Marilley told KOMO News shortly after enjoying her lunch in the shade of a building in Triangle Park.

She is among those who believe that the restaurant should not have the right to use these premises for its customers.

“I think we should leave it as it is,” said Fred Andrews, owner of Madison Cellars.

Triangle Park is not actually a park – the land was donated to the community by the McNae family, but had fallen into disrepair.

“When we moved into How to Cook a Wolf, there were constant piles of trash. The gardens were all rotten and the benches were all rotten and there was actually a pile of needles,” Stowell said.

The restaurant owner said they spend several thousand dollars each month maintaining Triangle Park and that he would like to continue using it for his outdoor dining at How to Cook a Wolf.

“I think it’s good for the neighborhood. I think it’s good for the surrounding businesses,” said Anne Marie Koehler.

“Anyone can use it whenever they want, and then we take it over as a restaurant-café in the evenings,” Stowell said.

However, another Madison Park neighbor told KOMO News that the restaurant is open seven days a week, including for brunch on weekends, because others like to use the space at that time.

“I’ve never seen anyone kicked out of the room. I was there for dinner on Saturday night and there was a couple sitting next to us who weren’t eating, but they were sitting on the benches talking. They weren’t asked to leave, but rather welcomed to be there,” Koehler said.

The approval process with the Seattle Department of Transportation went back and forth for several years.

Opponents of this land use argue that the public square is a community gathering place that was originally donated to the community of Madison Park.

The Stowell’s restaurant group applied for a permit about three years ago to permanently convert the space into an outdoor dining area, but the permitting process is still pending.

The comment period for this permit ended on Tuesday. Neighbors have created a website and urged others to protest the permit in writing so that the park remains a public space.

City records revealed several violations regarding the restaurant group’s use of the premises. The city issued two separate violations – in September 2021 and December 2021 – for an unpermitted cafe with a weather-protection structure erected without a permit in a public space.

Then in 2023, the city filed charges against the restaurant group for building the structure without a permit and subsequently applying for a permit that was approved for a smaller area than it had already built.

“Nothing bad like that happened, you know. We built something that was bigger than the permit allowed? I don’t know. Are we talking 40 feet? Are we talking four inches? I don’t know. I can’t comment on that, we have to make sure the structure is up to code and of course we will do that,” Stowell said.

The back and forth between Ethan Stowell Restaurants and the city continued in April and May of this year, when the city accused the group of “failing to respond to the required corrections to the cafe’s building permit application.”

“Sidewalk cafes are under SDOT’s oversight and I think we just let them dictate what we can and can’t use. If we’re not allowed to use it, that’s fine with us,” Stowell said.

The city told KOMO News it intends to decide on the permit by the end of August.

“My personal opinion is that we have a system that works well for the community and we have a system that works well for maintaining the park and it would be disappointing if that system were no longer there,” Stowell said.

Stowell said he would abide by any decision the city makes.