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A controversial restaurateur is opening a restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa. Lowell Sheldon and his partners will be opening Townes Restaurant & Bar in November in the building formerly occupied by Third Street Aleworks. Sheldon has been previously accused of sexual harassment at three Sebastopol restaurants that he co-founded which included unwanted touching and inappropriate comments. He has since had to relinquish his shares in those restaurants. He is now a partner at Piala, also in Sebastopol, under the condition he cannot legally work at the restaurant or enter the kitchen. Sheldon tells the Press Democrat that, while he still rejects the allegations, “Growing up in the restaurant business, I take full accountability for my learning along the way and not always treating everyone in the way that I should have.”