Cafe Nell has new landord

Housing project may spell end to sprawling outdoor dining arrangement

The former ComedySportz theater at 1963 NW Kearney is part of a property sold to a local developer in December.

Cafe Nell has thrived since COVID by leasing an adjacent 50x100-foot parking lot that has a sprawling, tented outdoor dining area. But that lot and the rest of an L-shaped parcel surrounding the restaurant were recently sold to an entity managed by Parker McNulty, principal for Carbon Group.

McNulty told the NW Examiner that his primary reason for buying the quarter-acre parcel was parking. He plans to move his offices from 2892 NW Upshur St., where there are only two off-street stalls, to the former comedy club theater, which abuts an alley having room for a few more spaces if they are stacked.

The city has allowed Cafe Nell to continue operating the outdoor dining area under a complex conditional use permit, which is required because the restaurant does not conform to the residential zoning on the block. McNulty says he has no immediate plans to terminate the lease, though he is seeking state funding for an affordable housing project, a prospect he calls “highly tentative.”

Cafe Nell’s dining shelter encloses the 50x100-foot parking lot next to Cafe Nell on land that recently changed hands.