Madison's Common Council approved an alcohol license for a controversial new restaurant Tuesday night.

Samba Steak House, which is slated to open its doors on the 200 block of W. Gilman Street, controversial among neighboring communities that fear the establishment will simply become another campus bar, has several restricting conditions.

The Alcohol License Review Committee approved the restaurant's license in a narrow vote at their last meeting. But according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, the City Council generally validates any decision made by the ALRC no matter how controversial the vote.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, the ALRC's recommendations are accepted by the City Council," he said. "In the case of Samba, the neighborhood association and the police departments expressed very serious concerns at the last ALRC meeting."

Because of these concerns, City Council President Austin King said the restaurant's liquor license will come with several stipulations. Because of the concern from Madison communities, hours of operation and live music will be monitored closely.

King added patrons at Samba will not be able to consume alcohol without also ordering food, and the restaurant may only provide "light dinner music." Acceptable music will include classical guitar, acoustic performances and traditional Brazilian music, he said, but amplification will not be allowed.

King said the size of the restaurant, estimated at a maximum of 358 patrons, was another major concern of the ALRC. Samba will be one of the biggest capacity establishments in Madison, if not the largest, Verveer added.

"If you end up with a Club Majestic-style scenario, you might have hundreds of people on the streets at bar time … so the idea was to limit overall operating hours," King explained.

Verveer said there was ultimately a significant amount of compromise on the issue by both the owners and the city. While the owners are inconvenienced with liquor-license restrictions, he said, the city faces the burden of yet another alcohol-licensed establishment.

"At a time when the cops and the neighborhood associations and the mayor's office is talking about limiting downtown liquor licenses, this would be going in the opposite direction," Verveer said.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the Common Council also addressed the Plan B ordinance, which would require pharmacies that do not supply Plan B emergency contraception to post signs telling customers where they can find the emergency contraceptive drug.

Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, formally introduced the ordinance to the council, and the members voted to refer the proposal.

"If approved … the emergency contraception increased investigation process will go to the director of the Public Health Department," Brandon noted.

But because the ordinance met high approval with the council and is backed by many of the members, including Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Verveer said the plan is likely to go into effect.

"[The ordinance] was referred to the Board of Health," he said. "But it seems it's on the way to approval with most of the City Council sponsoring it."