Barnstable Board of Health Denies Grease Trap Variances for Two Hyannis Restaurants

BARNSTABLE -- February 22, 2022, Barnstable Board of Health unanimously denies grease trap variances for two Hyannis restaurants, capping their seating by formula. The board rejected requests from the West End at 20 Scudder Avenue, which sought to retain 319 seats with a 3,500-gallon grease trap, and from Alberta's at 356 Main Street, where new owner Darko Ristovsky sought to continue a 250-seat capacity tied to a 2008 variance the board determined had expired October 14, 2008. Both restaurants are now capped at seat counts their existing tanks support under the town's 15-gallons-per-seat standard, 233 for the West End, 200 for Alberta's. Chair John Norman explained that grease trap sizing is not primarily a storage question: "Within a four-hour meal service, you could be pumping grease into the sewer system because it's not able to travel long enough in that size tank in order to solidify." The board also unanimously approved a voluntary Nitro-E denitrification system for the Barnstable Land Trust's new 30-seat assembly building at 995 Route 149 in Marstons Mills and issued a septic installer license to Timothy Quirk of South Dennis.