Cajun Dave's Smoker Approved for Another Year

smoker will stay on South Water Street for at least another year.

Kent City Council voted Wednesday to extend a conditional use permit that allows the restaurant to operate in front of its building twice a week. The smoker is typically only used on Fridays.

But Wednesday night's approval came with the condition that the city review the smoker's operation again six months into that year extension, which starts July 23.

The smoker has helped boost lunchtime business for the restaurant, but the smoke created by it has concerned some neighboring business owners.

In February, the owners of and — Sue Nelson and Carl Picelle, respectively — wrote letters to council in opposition to the smoker. Among their concerns were safety of the unmanned smoker and the loss of the parking space to it.

But the issue of the smoke and its potential detrimental effects on storefronts and products came to the forefront during Wednesday's meeting.

"This is a grease and a wood smoke," Nelson said. "It will ruin things."

Nelson and Picelle traded claims and rebuttals with Cajun Dave's owners Mike Beder and Brian Bower as council asked questions and debated the issue for more than an hour.

Beder said they initially used wood to bring the boiler up to the 200-degree Fahrenheit cooking temperature. But that created a lot of smoke, and since the letters were sent to council they started using propane to heat the smoker and reduced their wood consumption by 75 percent. He said he can only expect that move cut down on the smoke output.

Overall, members of council agreed the smoker has a positive effect on downtown, and they urged the business owners to find a compromise. Various potential solutions discussed briefly Wednesday included everything from finding a new location for the smoker, to installing scrubbers on the vent stacks and limiting its operation.

In the end, council members stopped short of directly scolding the business owners for not talking out their issues and re-emphasized their desire to see Beder, Bower, Nelson and Picelle find a peaceful solution to the issue.

Beder said they tried unsuccessfully to set up a meeting with Nelson and Picelle indirectly through their ward council representative, , and through the Main Street Kent organization.

"I guess we’re trying to legislate good neighbors," Shaffer said. "And that is a very difficult issue."

Bower and Beder said after the meeting they plan to continue trying to curb the smoke output from the barbecue smoker.