Photo: Watchsmart via Flickr
Think the city’s giving you a hard time for that wood-burning oven you’re trying to install in your restaurant? That’s nothing compared to this couple in Sierra Madre who, like characters out of a Herzog film, have been digging out a wine bar fifteen feet into the ground under their house over the last ten years with simple gardening equipment. But alas, building your own bar, no less in a man-made underground cave, is the kind of thing city officials don’t appreciate, resulting in a big fat lawsuit that cites a slew of planning, permitting, and construction violations for what owner Jeff Hildreth calls “The Sterlingoak.” [LAT]
