Dozens of people packed the public meeting room in Whitehall Township Tuesday as a sandwich shop works to fight a zoning enforcement notice.
Township zoning officials contend SMP Steaks, which opened in August at 1050 Schadt Ave., is operating as a restaurant without proper permits. Owner Chade Sankari says it’s legally a retail store.
Officials considered testimony for the appeal case during a zoning hearing board meeting Tuesday evening, but did not issue a ruling.
Zoning and Codes Officer Christopher Gittinger said Tuesday he received multiple complaints about the location, specifically that SMP Steaks was a restaurant but hadn’t been approved that way.
Gittinger said he issued a use permit for a retail business that included sandwiches Oct. 15, 2025, and limited the square footage of space customers could access. He acknowledged during the meeting that parts of a particular zoning use can meet multiple definitions, but when he visited Aug. 11, “it was clearly a restaurant.”
Gittinger noted that the reported 13 parking spaces SMP Steaks has is not enough for the 42 seats inside and 16 seats outside that he counted. The seating area where people would eat food was about two-thirds of the customer area, he added, with the remaining being a small retail area.
“If you take into account the kitchen area where the food was prepared, it’s more like 3 to 1, the restaurant use compared to a retail setup,” he said, highlighting that January 2026 floor plans confirmed the ratios he observed of customer seating and the kitchen to the retail area.
Gittinger said they sent the enforcement notice Aug. 12.
“I determined that the retail use was a permitted use in this zoning district, and that an incidental or accessory sale of sandwiches could be included with that use,” he said. “However, the retail use has to be the principal use.”
Attorney Joel Wiener, who represented Sankari at the Tuesday meeting, questioned Gittinger about SMP Steaks, its original application and the township’s zoning ordinance.
Through questioning, Gittinger acknowledged that SMP Steaks didn’t exceed the limit of customer-accessible space, that he didn’t previously state that food sale could only be an accessory use, that some retail is being sold there and that he wasn’t aware of an ordinance provision that says what percentage of retail a business needs to sell to still be considered retail.
“If you think it’s something that’s affecting the decision, it should be well communicated, not done with a surprise after a tremendous investment’s been made in the property based upon a use form,” Wiener told The Morning Call afterward, arguing the current use aligns with the original application.
Sankari purchased and fit out the Schadt Avenue property through the business Zwaitini Inc. based on last year’s use permit, Wiener said.
While several attendees intended to speak on the case, zoning Solicitor William Fries said they should pause the hearing for Tuesday’s other cases, particularly to make sure cases are heard within 60 days of application. The next zoning hearing board meeting is 7 p.m. Nov. 17.
“You guys are what we are — family,” Sankari told the crowd before the zoning hearing board moved on. “Everybody who showed up here is family to us, and that’s the bottom line. We are Whitehall. This is a representation of what Whitehall is.”