Despite initial concerns over potential financial setbacks, the management of P6 restaurant in Westlake Village decided not to appeal the state liquor board’s decision to limit its hours of alcohol sales. The deadline to file an appeal was Aug. 8.

Instead, the restaurant has implemented changes designed to increase profits as well as to appease neighbors who’ve complained of late-night noise from the restaurant since it opened in June 2004. There have been major changes in management and in direction.

“I think the neighbors have been through enough,” said Brad Finefrock, P6 co-owner and general partner. “There were a lot of issues and they had valid points.”

Located on Agoura Road at the former site of Coco’s, the restaurant is adjacent to homes in the Stoneybrook development. Shortly after P6 opened with a temporary liquor license, residents began complaining of latenight noise. Police were called out numerous times and the restaurant made some changes in response.

The city’s planning commission originally denied the restaurant’s liquor license application, but the city council overruled that decision and approved the application. Stoneybrook residents collected 80 signatures on a petition sent to the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, urging them not to grant a hard liquor license.

In June, the liquor board came up with a compromise, recognizing that the restaurant is located in a mixed commercial/residential area. P6 can serve alcohol but only between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. and midnight on weekends. Normally, legal hours for serving alcohol are 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Although “shocked” by the decision at first, P6 owners decided to make changes rather than appeal.

Jerry Rubacky, a co-owner who represented P6 in dealings with residents, the city and the media, is no longer with the restaurant.

“Jerry wanted to go in a different direction, so I exercised my option to buy him out,” Finefrock said. “Jerry got an option to do something else.”

Finefrock says he doesn’t know what Rubacky is doing now, and Rubacky didn’t return phone messages from the Thousand Oaks Acorn.

Always billed as a fine dining restaurant, P6 will now focus on five-star dining and service, added Finefrock. A new executive chef and general manager have been hired from Geoffrey’s, the cliffside eatery overlooking the ocean in Malibu, and a new menu is being unveiled Sept. 1. New uniforms and service standards are being implemented to attract a more sophisticated clientele.

“We have always been a restaurant and lounge, not a nightclub, but sometimes things evolve out of your control,” Finefrock said. “In the beginning, because it was such a hip atmosphere, we got every 21year-old who’d just had a birthday. That’s not what we envisioned.”

There have been no complaints from neighbors over the past six weeks, according to Finefrock. But David Berger, who complained to the city and the liquor board about noise from P6, remains skeptical.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Berger, who lives 253 feet from the rear wall of the restaurant.

Finefrock credits the change in noise level and clientele with his company’s opening of another restaurant in Agoura Hills called Chapter 8 Steakhouse & Dance Lounge. A fine dining/dance lounge, Chapter 8 is geared toward 21 to 45-year-olds and is open until 2 a.m.

“I don’t want to make more money than we need to at the expense of the neighbors’ lifestyle,” said Finefrock, whose grandparents lived in Stoneybrook. “By not appealing the decision and making these changes, we’re trying to show that we’re at least making a good faith effort to address their concerns.”