Restaurant not guilty, will stay

GLENDALE — Jurors on Wednesday found the owners of the Montrose Collection restaurant not guilty of violating the city’s Municipal Code in operating as an unsanctioned banquet hall.

During two and a half days of deliberation, jurors requested multiple times to review evidence in the case against Arman and Takui Aivazian, owners of the Montrose Collection Restaurant and Banquet Hall, and their corporation, ATNA Enterprises.

“I am innocent,” Arman Aivazian said. “We never did an illegal banquet at all since day one.”

The city attorney’s office brought charges against the Aivazians and ATNA Enterprises after a city inspector found that the establishment, on at least once occasion, operated as a banquet hall after a 2005 expansion of the restaurant, thus violating a 2002 ordinance that prohibits restaurants from using more than 30% of their facilities for private parties.

The Board of Zoning Appeals subsequently revoked the restaurant’s operating permit, which was contingent on the ordinance.

Defense attorney Michael Levin argued throughout the trial that the 2831 Honolulu Ave. restaurant was operating before the 2002 ordinance was introduced. Thus, he said, his clients should be exempt from the 30% threshold, and its expansion did not represent a “major change” since it had been legally running as a 5,000-square-foot facility before more than 1,200 square feet were added in 2005.

Although he was glad the eatery was vindicated, Arman Aivazian is considering changing the name of his restaurant because he believes the current name has been tainted by the case.

And while he is angry at the way the city conducts business, he said he will not move his 2831 Honolulu Ave. restaurant.

“I am going to continue to do business in Glendale because we have lots of customers here,” he said.

Deputy City Atty. Dorine Martirosian said she and her legal team did enough to win.

“It’s certainly disappointing,” Martirosian said of the verdict. “We put forward all of our evidence.”

Jurors told Martirosian they wanted more documented evidence on whether the Aivazians had been told by the city that their design plan proposals for the restaurant were a violation, she said.

Levin believes the jury’s verdict will help vindicate the Aivazians.

For the defense, he said the case encompassed “two schools of thought” on why the city went after the Aivazians — prejudice and financial interest.

Arman Aivazian believed the city targeted his restaurant because of prejudice against Armenians, Levin said.

Levin, however, believes the city was trying to protect its own banquet hall at the Civic Auditorium, at 1401 N. Verdugo Road, from losing money to the restaurant by “getting rid of competing interest.”

The restaurant lost a lot of money during the criminal case, Arman Aivazian said.

But for Arman Aivazian, the biggest loss is to the city of Glendale, which he said lost its credibility.

“Glendale city needs to get more honest people to run the city,” he said.