Carmel’s two primary late-night cocktail bars, Barmel and Sade’s Cocktails, are facing landlord troubles, putting the fate of their businesses in jeopardy.
On July 8, Carmel attorney Mark O’Connor filed a complaint on behalf of the owners of Barmel, alleging that the landlords of Carmel Square breached their contractual obligations as well as interfered with the sale of the business. According to the lawsuit, the landlords began arbitrarily raising the rent after the start of their five-year lease in 2020.
Gabe Georis, who has been operating in the space since 2009 when he acquired Mundaka, says the friction between him and the new property managers—and by extension, the landlord—feels personal, if not relatively recent. Georis, who also runs La Bicyclette Restaurant in Carmel, opened Mundaka as a Spanish tapas restaurant. It later expanded into adjacent spaces in the square, becoming Barmel in 2013. Mundaka eventually became Pescadero, then the Barmel Supper Club in 2020.
In the early days he rented from Ruthanne (Sue) Kallay, who Georis says he enjoyed working with and who died in 2013. According to her obituary, the Georis’ family hosted her memorial reception at Carmel Square. “She was a lovely lady. She had built that square and maintained it well,” Georis says. “She really took care of things.
“I feel like things really changed when she brought in this new property manager at the beginning of 2020,” he says, referencing Johanna White, his current landlord and daughter of Kallay.
According to the lawsuit, the property manager, Linda Persall, would appear in the kitchen unannounced, insisting on free food for herself and husband and lie to the property owner about the business unless demands for food were met. The landlord/property manager refused to make necessary repairs to the building and bathrooms, and interfered with business operations, including the sale of the business, as well as customer relations, as alleged in the lawsuit.
Georis says Barmel had several interested buyers and attempted to move forward with selling the bar to a restaurateur to take over the remainder of the lease. That, too, failed. The lawsuit states the landlords published false statements about the lease expiring. The owners later received a 60-day notice to vacate the premises on June 4, 2025. Without the notice, the lease extends until Dec. 31, 2029.
Donald Drummond, a San Rafael attorney who is representing White and trustees who own Carmel Square, says that lease violations were the reason for the notice to vacate. He says the landlords want to help Georis sell the business, but the last prospective buyer did not provide the necessary information to do so.
Drummond says violations included breaking city ordinances, such as “keeping business open past closure time, keeping more people in the premises than what was permitted by the city. There were fights in the courtyards.”
He adds that earlier this week, the City of Carmel served a notice of violation to Georis warning him that if he didn’t change his business practices, the Planning Commission could move to revoke his use permit and/or business license.
The Weekly received a copy of the notice of violation letter, dated Aug. 4, via a Public Records Act request. “You are instructed to immediately cease any business activities which violate the City’s Municipal Code and to operate Barmel and Barmel Supper Club in a manner consistent with their respective use permits,” Carmel Code Compliance Coordinator Bo Grunde wrote. “Failure to comply with these requirements will result in further enforcement action, including, but not limited to, the issuance of citations with fines.”
Georis sees his options as sticking it out for the remainder of the original lease (pending the lawsuit), preparing to move, or selling the business to someone new.
“What sounds easier at this point is if they will let me sell it to someone, and give somebody a new lease,” he says. “I'm not a contentious person. I’ve bent over backwards to try to avoid this. It's a drag that it’s come to this. It’s a bummer on so many levels.”
Georis says his vision for Barmel and all its previous iterations has been centered around how to create a place that’s welcoming, that encourages strangers to interact with one another and to dance. In his eyes, he made small but important changes to the bar, like removing television screens and limiting bar seating to make the space more communal.
In the city of Carmel, only three “drinking places” are permitted in the city: Barmel, Sade’s Cocktails and A.W. Shucks Cocktail & Oyster Bar.
“My mission for the last 20 years is to try and help foster spaces where we can continue to build community,” Georis says. “And it's worked for me and I think it’s worked for the community, that’s why we have the support we do.
“That's why it makes me sad to lose Barmel. Besides the fact that it's my bread and butter, it's like, here goes another place for the community. It's a shame for Sade’s to be gone too, because that also fills a sweet spot in our community that most of the businesses aren't concerned about.”
Sade’s Cocktails, which is approaching its 100th year in business, has also gone through its share of leasing woes with landlord Lizette Fiallo. Her company, Marliz Estate Ocean LLC, purchased the property—which houses Sade’s Cocktails, Dametra and a swimwear store—for $8 million in 2018, according to county property records.
Parker Logan, the current owner of Sade’s, bought the bar in 2018 after working there for about eight years. He says his landlords from the start had avoided having conversations about renewing his lease renewal, which was a red flag for him.
Logan says that Bashar Sneeh of Dametra Cafe, a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant that shares the building, was the one who told Logan they plan to move to Sade’s space. He believes they intend to turn the space into a higher-end bar.
“They’re pushing out the small guy,” Logan says.
The landlords of Sade’s could not be reached for comment.
While Logan carries his own liquor license, Carmel’s zoning laws only permit him to function as Sade’s does in the three designated locations in the city.
Logan says his options are limited. “Everything is on the table for me at this point,” he says, adding that if there is an opportunity to move into the Barmel space, he’ll explore it. “It’s definitely something I’m going to look into.”
His other options include petitioning the city to change its zoning rules to allow more drinking establishments within city limits, or opening a restaurant that also serves alcohol. “But then it wouldn’t be Sade’s, and I wouldn’t be able to stay open late. That’s the other caveat,” Logan says. He estimates that 80 percent of his business occurs between 10pm and 2am.
"I think we should be helpful to Parker in locating another acceptable location for Sade's," Carmel Mayor Dale Byrne said in an emailed statement to the Weekly. "There is a limit to the number of locations for businesses like his but there may be a way to work it out." Byrne adds that Logan has been talking to the City over the past number of months but, without knowing the outcome of his current location nothing has been done in earnest. "It now appears that the situation is more clear," he wrote.
About a month ago, Logan says, his landlords informed him he would not be able to renew the lease. He’s since started a GoFundMe, asking for $14,000 to help “relocate, recreate, rebuild.”
"It's the hub of nightlife in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and it has been for 99 years,” Logan says. “It's not just what it means to me, it's what it means to the community. It's a gathering place for everyday people and the service workers and the construction guys and the billionaires who are just looking for a place to not be so stuffy.”