The Rio Lempa restaurant in Silver Spring lost its liquor license earlier this year amid a flurry of citations and complaints from neighbors over public drunkenness, noise, and crime. Now, Walter and Daysi Gil want to open a restaurant there.

But the couple's liquor license application for the Gil's Restaurant at 8200 Piney Branch Road would likely have been denied Thursday, especially after Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners Chairman Eugene Thirolf said during a liquor board hearing that he wouldn't vote for it.

"I think the ball is in your court to accommodate the interests of your neighbors. I realize that you were not associated in any way with Rio Lempa, that’s not any of your doing, but the location has a history," Thirolf told the Gils.

The couple will now revise their business plan ahead of a new hearing, scheduled for noon on Thursday, Nov. 4. And it seems that if they don't make some changes to the two main points of contention — the operating hours and inclusion of three pool tables — they will likely be denied a license.

Seven letters of protest were sent to the board, and Sligo Park Hills resident Bill McDermott showed up to testify. Neighbors worry that late-night hours, the owners' lack of experience (this will be their first restaurant, although their manager has 25 years of restaurant experience), and parking problems will cause the restaurant to turn into more of a bar in order to survive. El Sitio already stays open late at night two doors down.

The Gils proposed to operate from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. And McDermott says he's not opposed to them opening up at all, but that certain restrictions should be made on what they can do.

"The community had conveyed that, yes, we’d be much happier if they agreed to a 10 p.m. closing on weekends. Then there would be an indication that [they’re] going to operate as a restaurant" rather than a bar, McDermott said

But pool tables? That was never mentioned to residents, McDermott said. During today's hearing, he read aloud notes he took during a September community meeting with the Gils, who at that point said there would be no pool tables and that the bar room would actually be a private dining area.

Board member Dee Metz also pointed out that the board very rarely grants licenses in locations that had licenses once revoked.

"We run into a lot of problems with bars with pool tables, especially with a separate room," she said. "It looks like you have a restaurant and a bar, and it concerns me personally because you're going to have pool tables. With the complaints we’ve had from the community, we're very concerned with people being over-served and not eating."

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