Though it hasn't secured a certificate of occupancy from the town of Sennett, Bonca's is open for business.

The owners of the former Pioneer Restaurant property put an “open for ice cream” sign outside its Route 20 building Saturday afternoon to invite people in for just that. The restaurant won't be fully operational for another week or more, according to Greg Rigby, one of the partners in the business. Cooking staff needs to be hired and food product needs to be delivered.

The town code enforcement last month inspected the property, which has been extensively renovated from its condition when the Pioneer closed. Rigby said the business fixed all legitimate problems raised at the inspection.

But this week the Bonca's owners received a letter from the code enforcement officer, Paul Weiman Jr., with a long list of new problems.

At the end of the letter came a warning against opening the business without the certificate. “The Town will seek an immediate injunction along with damages for attorney's fees and will prosecute you and your partners criminally to the fullest extent of the law,” Weiman wrote.

The owners feel confident they've done everything legally they need to do to be open.

“I'm expecting that these guys will come to their senses and see that what we've done is not that terrible,” Rigby said.

Early Saturday evening, customers were starting to trickle into the building and onto the outside deck. Though meals are not being sold at this point, the restaurant's menu is written out on a large blackboard behind the counter. Several people stopped in just to see the inside of the building.

Rigby explained that the company had stocked up on a lot of ice cream and had been training employees to serve it. Saturday was their first day to serve customers.

“We had a lot of product and didn't want to have it go bad,” he said.

Five employees, all part-timers, were serving inside and outside from a menu of soft ice cream and 16 flavors of hard ice cream.

Bonca's is expected to be open every day, though specific hours are still being worked out.

On Saturday, Rigby was planning to personally be on hand until the business closed for the evening.

“Just in case the town wants to raise some objection, it will be me that deals with it rather than an employee,” Rigby said.

The business has been wrangling with the town for almost two years in a case that ended up in state Supreme Court over issues involving non-conforming use and the town's zoning laws. The Sennett Town Board essentially sued its own zoning board of appeals over a decision earlier this year that allowed the Bonca's project to progress. A judge sided with the ZBA and urged all the parties to avoid a return trip to court by working out their differences.

Rigby said the business has its permit from the Cayuga County Health Department, and he's confident there are no building code violations.

The town of Sennett can issue an appearance ticket or seek an injunction if the business has violated the zoning law and opened without a CO.

Both Weiman and town Supervisor David Sikora were unable to be reached for comment.

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net