islington news: Restaurateur Roberto Zuluaga | La Piragua | Samba | erotic | exotic

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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published:5 December 2008

Restaurateur Roberto Zuluaga:
‘A lot of people complained’

It was all a mistake says man at centre
of lapdance storm

Restaurateur’s bid for ‘erotic’ – instead of ‘exotic’ –
salsa nights sparks angry protests

RESTAURATEUR Roberto Zuluaga just wanted his customers to be able to samba the night away.
But an error on his licensing application form plunged the owner of La Piragua restaurant in Upper Street, Islington, into a lapdance row.
By mistake, Mr Zuluaga’s application stated he wanted to host “erotic” dancing at the family restaurant, directly across the road from the Town Hall.
This brought angry phone calls from neighbours and a scolding from female customers. Newspaper columnist Nick Cohen was so incensed he featured the row in the Evening Standard and police turned up to demand an explanation.
On her internet blog, Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox accused Islington Tories of holding their Christmas party at a wannabe lapdancing club.
La Piragua has a late licence at weekends but customers are not allowed to dance. Mr Zuluaga wanted the Town Hall to approve dancing and salsa and samba shows.
The Colombian restaurateur asked an agent – with better English than him – to help with the application form. He said: “I’ve been here 17 years. This is a family restaurant. I applied for a licence so customers can dance and we can do some salsa, samba, Latin American shows, which are quite sexy.
“They dress quite sexily so we were looking for a word to describe these things. My agent decided to use the word ‘exotic’. But she wrote ‘erotic’.”
He added: “A lot of people complained. I had a lot of phone calls. My neighbours were upset, every woman customer was upset.
“Police and licensing officers asked me to explain what I meant. I had to write a letter saying I never meant to have a strip club or lapdancing.”
Mr Zuluaga is worried about the impact the row will have on trade. He said: “South American people don’t want to come here if they can’t dance. But this is not the place for lapdancing. You need a different setting.”
He still hopes to be given permission for dancing and salsa shows.
Islington Conservatives chairman Duncan Webster said: “We are disappointed Bridget Fox chose to chastise us for having a Christmas party at La Piragua based on hearsay.
“When we heard about this issue we contacted the restaurant and they confirmed they had mistakenly made an application for late-night entertainment, and that had potentially included erotic dancing.”

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