Chronic cleanliness problems and nearly 2000 health code violations dating back as far as 2005 prompted Bearsville Center owner Lizzie Vann’s decision not to renew the Little Bear’s lease, she explained to a crowd gathered at the Bearsville Theater lounge on October 15.
Vann had convened the meeting to answer comments on social media calling her a greedy landlord who wanted the restaurant out so she could get higher rent.
In the waning weeks, according to Vann, the Little Bear placed bumper stickers in takeout bags that said “Lizzie Kills Little Bears.” But not once was there a discussion of raising rent, she said.
Vann said she deliberately did not say anything in public about the cleanliness or the health violations because she didn’t want to make it difficult for restaurant owner MarLee Koo. It wasn’t until the social media comments, the bumper stickers and a petition drive materialized that she decided to go public. Standing next to photographs of a dirty kitchen with rotting, moldy food, a greasy exhaust hood and rodent droppings in a food storage shed, Vann explained that she tried numerous times to work with Koo.
Attempts to reach MarLee Koo for comment were not successful.
When Vann purchased the complex in 2019, Radio Woodstock and the Little Bear were the only viable businesses and the radio station had intentions to move. “I said I want you to stay, MarLee,” Vann said. “Tell me what you need. So she said, ‘I needed some improvements.’ She wanted to change the bathrooms and there were some leaks in the roof. So we made a plan to do that.”
Renovations had to wait until February, 2020, because the restaurant was busy, Vann explained. “So come February, we put new bathrooms and we put new floors down. For those of you that go to the Little Bear, you probably have seen quite a big change at that point. We cleaned the kitchen, we put in new plumbing, new sinks, we went down in the basement, we did a complete clean of the basement,” Vann said. “And at that point, I thought the reason the Little Bear had had so many Board of Health violations was simply that the building was in bad shape. You know, there’s been very little done to it for 30 years, if anything.”
Vann said she spent $130,000 on the Little Bear renovations, including items she said are not the landlord’s job, like a deep cleaning of the kitchen. “At the end of that I said, MarLee, I’m going to give you a lease that takes you to the end of May 2021. Again, you have to remember this is before COVID. And please keep it clean. Because at that point, I didn’t know if it was so dirty and you’re having problems because of bad practice or because it was not in good shape.”
Fire hazard endangered complex
According to Vann, she and Bearsville Center Operations Manager Kim Lockrow began monthly visits with MarLee to make sure she was on top of cleanliness and maintenance. “It started off very kind of friendly and we’d share a glass of wine on a Friday night. That’s what she used to do. And gradually, MarLee stopped being there,” Vann said.
Vann then began reading the health violations, which told a story of neglect. “Some are critical. So some are really health risky. Two hundred thirty-eight. And some were less critical but suggested that things were not being done right,” Vann said. “So the critical ones were things like finding meat that had got mold on it or food that was uncovered or food that was on the floor or buckets of defrosting meats that were uncovered on the floor.”
And then there was the hood.
“There’s a hood that goes over anything where there’s grease being cooked, and the rules are, the legality of it is that that has to be cleaned every six months because otherwise grease builds up and then boom, you have a problem,” Vann said.
But she had discovered it had been nearly a year since the hood was last cleaned and was in such bad shape, it needed to be replaced. Lockrow knew of the danger. “I said, MarLee, I want you to keep this in mind. If there’s any issue with that hood where it goes poof, you are about 10 feet away from that theater that we just sunk millions of dollars into,” Lockrow said. “You are just feet away from the Bear Cantina that we sunk so much time and energy. I said, it’s, it’s a ripple effect. I said so whatever you do here, it affects everything. So we have to really be cognizant.”
Documenting the problems
In April, 2021, Vann’s staff began taking photographs to document the conditions and to justify not renewing MarLee’s lease.
“This is where they were storing food,” Vann said, pointing to a photograph of the inside of a storage shed. “So this is a rat’s nest in the shed. That’s the way they were storing food…So I couldn’t really let this happen. I couldn’t really let this carry on. I tried very hard with MarLee. And at one point she said that there’s nothing I could do Lizzie, my staff don’t listen to me. It just is the way it is.”
At the same time, people were pressuring Vann to let MarLee stay.
“And we tried, believe me. We really tried to work with MarLee to get things better. But it came to May and we had to have a kind of come to Jesus moment with MarLee and said, help us out here,” Vann said. “We don’t want to stop your lease. And at that point we’ve been through COVID together. We had the restaurant working from the bluestone patio. We’ve done all sorts of things to try and keep it viable. We’ve given her free rent for a period of three months and we tried. I did not want to be the person that asked MarLee to leave, but there was no progress.”
Vann and Bearsville Center staff even tried to bring MarLee’s son in, thinking maybe a fresh set of eyes and pressure from a family member would help. He came, but decided not to stay, Vann said.
Cleanliness is relative?
Some attendees indicated they were friends of Koo and frequent customers, but understood the reason for Vann not renewing the lease.
One person who didn’t find Vann’s actions acceptable was local resident Fanny Prizant. “When it comes to cleanliness, there are very different ways to look at it,” she said. “I never saw anything dirty. Ever. I never saw nothing dirty. So, you know, maybe there was some dust or…”
Vann interjected. “The dirtiness was not in the restaurant. It was in the kitchen.”
Prizant, a friend of MarLee’s, disagreed. “I was in the kitchen. Maybe there was disorder, because it had to be disordered because people are working there. But they didn’t seem dirty. Maybe the sinks and things were old. Maybe you could have changed it and then they would look very clean. But they weren’t dirty,” Prizant said.
“There have been 1854 health violations,” Vann responded.
Prizant asked how many times the restaurant had been closed as a result of the violations.
Vann attempted to explain the situation, but Prizant said she didn’t want to hear it.
“We feel there was no reason whatsoever to get rid of that restaurant,” said Prizant.
She gave Vann a petition with several pages of signatures protesting the decision.
Lockrow said she asked the county Health Department what it takes to shut down a restaurant and was shocked by the answer.
“And they told me that they actually have to see rat or vermin in food, and I said that’s a pretty low bar,” Lockrow said. “This is a county issue, and this is something that everybody should be questioning, why the county has to keep such a low bar. So that is why there has never been a closure at the Little Bear, because a representative never saw a rat in the food…But there’s never been a closure of any restaurant to my knowledge in the county.”
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