Music behind the Essen Haus, the Come Back In, and the Up North bar silenced for now | Music
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Live music behind the Downtown businesses on the 500 block of East Wilson Street — the Essen Haus, Come Back In and the Up North bar — has been silenced for now.
Bob Worm, 74, who has owned those establishments for 40 years, said he has had live music for 26 years and began presenting more of it outside during the pandemic. It has helped keep him going, he said.
But after getting a citation from city building inspection ordering him to stop all outdoor music due to city zoning codes, Worm ended it Monday.
The citation says that Worm is allowed to have amplified music only during six permitted events per year and not on a recurring basis.
“Zoning’s got involved in it and they want to call the rules,” he said.
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Worm said the entertainment license he has had for 40 years allows him to have music and that he’s willing to negotiate on what days and times he offers it.
City building inspector Matt Tucker said outdoor music isn’t allowed under Worm’s liquor license and zoning approvals with the exception of six events identified in his zoning requests.
Had Worm not complied, he would have been charged $75 for any inspections that didn’t result in full compliance.
Tucker said Worm would need approval for any outdoor sound at the site, including piping music out from an indoor sound system.
Kristina Pirius, Worm’s daughter and general manager, started a petition Tuesday, “Save Come Back In and Up North live outdoor music,” on change.org, which as of Thursday afternoon had more than 850 signatures. In the petition, Pirius details the ways she has attempted to diminish the noise.
One stage serves all three entities with 30 tables in the back parking lot of the businesses, Worm said.

Bob Worm, who has owned the Essen Haus, Come Back In and Up North bar on the 500 block of East Wilson Street for 40 years, is wrangling with the city over live, outdoor music.
Samara Kalk Derby | Wisconsin State Journal
He said he offers music five to seven times a week, and increased outdoor music early in the pandemic when bars were unable to seat people inside.
Worm said he ends outdoor music between 8 and 9 p.m., even though he was under the impression it could go until 10 p.m. “We’ve always made it until 8:45. That was our general rule for the last 26 years.”
Jennifer Zilavy, assistant city attorney, said in evaluating the situation she looked at other venues in the city that have live outdoor music.
“Every single one of them has a limit on what the outdoor music can be,” she said, adding that the Edgewater hotel has a limit of 35 events per year and also has a decibel level it cannot exceed. The High Noon Saloon has music on its patio from 5 to 7 p.m., mostly limited to Thursdays.
“So, this seven nights a week was really excessive in terms of outdoor amplified music, particularly given the location (next to) residential areas,” Zilavy said.
She suggested moving the music indoors, which she said is authorized under both Worm’s liquor license and his zoning permits.

Live music behind the Essen Haus, Come Back In and Up North bar is over for now.
Samara Kalk Derby | Wisconsin State Journal
Neighbors react
Three neighborhood residents expressed their frustrations during a contentious neighborhood meeting with city officials held over Zoom Monday evening.
Bob Judy said he has lived in a building on the corner of East Main Street and South Franklin street for more than 20 years. “It does get frustrating,” he said. “The music has ramped up and got much louder in the last couple of years.”
On a Sunday evening, he might want to sit inside and watch TV, but the music is too loud, he said during the meeting.
Judy said that the previous night, he had gone near the property with a decibel reader, which maxed out at 84 decibels. For comparison, some dishwashers, food blenders, garbage disposals and diesel trucks operate in that range, according to Temple University’s department of civil and environmental engineering.
“On the other hand,” he said, “I do want to support our small businesses. I want all those businesses to be a success, but we have to live in this neighborhood together.”
Conversations to get the matter resolved have broken down, Judy said.

The rear entrance of the Essen Haus near East Wilson and South Blair streets.
“The bottom line is we are being blasted,” said Juli Wagner, 55, who has lived on Franklin Street since 2007. “We have to close our windows, we have to close our doors.”
Noise complaints
Wagner told Worm that when police officers are called to his businesses it’s because neighbors are “beyond trying to work with you directly.”
Madison’s Central District police Capt. Harrison Zanders said officers get repeatedly called to the patio due to noise complaints, and have had more calls this year than last. He said he came to the meeting with high hopes, looking for a solution, and added that he was walking away disappointed that there was no consensus.
Ald. Brian Benford, 6th District, called it an “intergenerational conflict,” with younger people wanting more live events and music. “Maybe I wasn’t around when that first approval came through,” he said, “but I can tell you, it was never intended to be a mini-Summerfest ground abutting these neighbors’ houses.”
Bob Mayville, 57, said he welcomes the music and when he expressed that opinion on an email chain with other members of the neighborhood, he said he got excluded from subsequent emails. For that reason, he didn’t know about Monday’s meeting.
“I have a condo that faces directly out over the parking lot and can see and hear everything that happens down there,” Mayville said.
He said he’s in favor of public entertainment and appreciates the music bookings. When he’s home, he often opens the windows and listens to it.
“I don’t think it’s too loud,” he said. “There have been moments of loud, but the vast majority of it is at a reasonable outdoor volume.”

Come Back In and the Essen Haus are the subject of noise complaints for their frequent outdoor live music.
Where to park it?
Tucker said another issue is that, in the past year, Worm has set up tables where accessible parking stalls had been.
How cars get into and out of parking stalls has to be approved by the city’s Traffic Engineering Division so nothing blocks Fire Department access, for example, Tucker said.
He added that Worm went through an approval process correctly in 2013 to put in a sand volleyball court where some parking spots had been.
In a phone conversation Tuesday, Worm said he already moved the offending tables from the restricted parking stalls.
At the meeting, Worm’s lawyer, Robert Procter, said he wishes the city would have connected with them ahead of time before the citation over the music was issued.
Procter said when Worm got his zoning permit in 1996, he was told that to have outdoor music he had to have an entertainment license, which he got. He has followed city directions ever since, Procter said.
“To state the position 25 years later that, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve been in violation for 25 years,’ is kind of unreasonable,” he said.
Tucker said he had a follow-up meeting with Worm on Tuesday, which was much more amicable. Another meeting is scheduled between Worm and the city planning director on Wednesday, but Tucker said he’s not exactly sure what Worm wants to talk about.
Zilavy said Worm must submit documents to amend his current zoning plan so the plan matches what he currently has set up outside. She said he was informed of the need to do that last fall.
She said he also needs to submit a plan for his outdoor music, which will go to the Plan Commission. That body will then hold a public hearing before making a decision on the issue of outdoor music.
Worm said he’s unclear how much neighbors will tolerate. “Maybe the neighborhood only wanted one night a week, two nights a week. Who knows?” he said. “Now things are twice as hard to get solved.”
Art of the Everyday: A recap of June in photos from Wisconsin State Journal photographers

A pod of American white pelicans gather on rocks in the Wisconsin River below the Alliant Energy dam in Prairie du Sac, Wis. Monday, June 6, 2022. The species, largely unseen in the state during much of the 20th century, are more common to the region now and are one of North America’s largest flying birds, featuring a wingspan up to nine feet and weighing up to 30 pounds. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

A duck lifts off the water as boaters paddle to Tenney Park Beach during Paddle and Portage in Madison, Wis., Saturday, June 18, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

(From left lower) Roomates Isabella Bortolotti and Rachel Bearder host friends for a pool party in their front yard, including Maddie Gehring, right, Lola Wojcik, top left, and Grover Bortolotti, all college students, on the Near West Side during a heat wave in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, June 14, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Syanne Morales and her son, Syncere Bowie, enjoy the cool relief offered by a water feature during a visit to the Cypress Splash Park in Madison Wis. Tuesday, June 14, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

(From left) Tabitha Goldberger, 10, Camila Fernandez Adamae, 11, and Vee Schwartz, 13, react as they perform a rocket propulsion experiment using Alka-Seltzer and water in a film canister during summer camp at Stellar Tech Girls in Middleton, Wis., Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

Ashley Peotter, front, carries a canoe with her teammate Marie Barry through Tenney Park during Paddle and Portage in Madison, Wis., Saturday, June 18, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Kelly Parks Snider’s “Between Spaces” exhibit at the Arts + Literature Laboratoryin Madison, Wis. Friday, June 3, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Josh Hull, right, and Trevor Stahl, both of Roanoke, Virginia, who are participating in the Great Race, a vintage car rally that started in Warwick, Rhode Island on June 18 and will end in Fargo, North Dakota on June 26, prepare to hit the road after making a stop at Angell Park on their 2,300-mile journey in Sun Prairie, Wis., Thursday, June 23, 2022.

The group Wild Violets, including Raquel Aleman, right, Sam Rae, front, and Becky Burbach perform outside the Barrymore Theatre during Make Music Madison in Madison, Wis., Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

Mariah Quinn Duffy, center, and her sons, from left, Kieran, 9, Ronan, 2, and Nolan, 6, add compost to a raised bed vegetable garden outside their home in Madison, Wis., Monday, June 13, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Kit Rittman and her husband Greg, front, cheer as boaters paddle down the Yahara River during Paddle and Portage in Madison, Wis., Saturday, June 18, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Gretchen Bushman, a recent UW-Madison grad and fan of music artist Harry Styles, relaxes outside her apartment on West Washington Avenue while escaping the heat of her non-air conditioned residence in Madison Wis. Tuesday, June 14, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Raghiatou Bah and her son, Mamadou, 8, explore their new living space – a condominium purchased with assistance from a grant through Own It: Building Black Wealth – in Madison, Wis. Friday, June 17, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

A Progress Pride Flag is raised above the east wing of the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. in observance of the month of June being designated as Pride Month Wednesday, June 1, 2022. An iteration of the widely recognized Rainbow Pride Flag, the Progress Pride Flag was created to symbolize inclusion of marginalized communities within the LGBTQ community and includes additional stripes forming a chevron pattern that represent LGBTQ individuals of color and the transgender community, as well as those who are living with and who have been lost to HIV/AIDS. Assisting with the effort are Wisconsin Department of Administration workers Darrin Smith, left, and Steve Walker. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Demonstrators protest at the state Capitol after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in Madison, Wis., Friday, June 24, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

People gather in support of Planned Parenthood and abortion rights at the Wisconsin State Capitol Rotunda in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Madison Edgewood’s Caden Thomas competes in the Division 2 boys high jump during the final day of the WIAA state track and field meet at Veterans Memorial Stadium in La Crosse , Wis., Saturday, June 4, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

McFarland’s Julia Ackley reacts after clearing 10 feet, 6 inches on her first attempt in the Division 2 girls pole vault during the final day of the WIAA state track and field meet at Veterans Memorial Stadium in La Crosse , Wis., Saturday, June 4, 2022. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Oregon girls soccer teammates (clockwise from bottom) Addison Werth, Zoey Pagels, Kately Studebaker and Lily Eisele celebrate their 1-0 WIAA Division 2 state championship victory over Whitefish Bay on June 18 at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee.

Oregon’s Elise Boyd (22) and Whitefish Bay’a Emma Addeo (16) compete for the ball during the second half of Oregon’s 1-0 WIAA Division 2 state championship win at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee, Wis. Saturday, June 18, 2022. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Wisconsin men’s soccer coach Neil Jones coaches athletes during a summer camp at University Bay Fields in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, June 22, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Milton catcher Grace Schnell, left, watches as teammate Lydia Miller catches a fly ball after it bounced off of Schnell’s mitt during a Division 1 state softball quarterfinal game at Goodman Softball Complex in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 9, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL

Thongchai Jaidee celebrates his victory in the American Family Insurance Championship at University Ridge in Madison, Wis., Sunday, June 12, 2022. AP Photo/Kayla Wolf

Golfers, from left, Vijay Singh, Brandt Jobe and Bernhard Langer and their caddies read the green on the eighth hole during the American Family Insurance Championship at University Ridge in Madison, Wis., Friday, June 10, 2022. KAYLA WOLF, STATE JOURNAL
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