Westin Hotel Opening Soon Featuring 2 Restaurants And Bars

  • Thursday, September 21, 2017
  • Gail Perry

The Westin Hotel at 801 Pine St. in downtown Chattanooga is close to opening. The hotel that is built in the repurposed "Gold Building" has local owners who are invested in the city, said General Manager Tom Underwood at the Thursday morning meeting of the Chattanooga Beer Board.

Opening is expected to take place in the next couple of weeks, he said. The hotel will have two restaurants and bars. Alchemy is a restaurant and bar on the rooftop, and Dorato Market is a restaurant and bar in the lobby. Both were unanimously approved for a beer license.

Training has already taken place for all employees who will serve alcohol and who have already been hired. Training was done by a trainer at the nearby Marriott Hotel. As others are hired, additional classes have been scheduled for them, and the restaurant and bar managers have been enrolled in classes so they can become TIPS trainers for their own facility. IDs will be checked for everyone who is served alcohol at the hotel, including those ordering room service.

Three special events, all represented by Carla Pritchard with Chattanooga Presents, were given special events beer permits. The 3 Sisters Festival on the weekend of Oct. 6 and 7 is a gift to the community from the Fletcher Bright family, for the eleventh year, said Ms. Pritchard. The free bluegrass festival will take place at Ross’s Landing, 120 Riverfront Parkway, from 5:30-11:30 p.m. both nights. Organizers are expecting about 5,000 people to attend.

Chattanooga Presents also received a special events beer permit for City Celebration & Ciclovia that will be on Oct. 8 on the lawn of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center from 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and for Pride Festival on Oct. 8 at Ross’s Landing from 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Chickstock, the annual fundraiser for the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy, will be held at 5051 Gann Store Road on Sept. 23 starting at 11 a.m. and ending at 11 p.m. The family-friendly festival will start with a dog walk, and at noon there will be live music, food trucks and beer.

Crabtree Farms is also planning a new event as a fundraiser called Pig Roast that will be held at Crabtree Farms at 1000 E. 30th St. on Sept. 30. Organizers are preparing 100-150 pounds of pork that will be served along with beer and soft drinks. There will be live music and dancing to go along with the food. The number of tickets has been capped at 150, with 25 of them being for employees. Tickets can be bought online or at the door. Proceeds will be used for Crabtree Farms’ education programs.

Two violations of the beer code were heard at the beer board meeting. Spare Time, 5518 Brainerd Road, was cited for selling beer to a minor for the second time this year during compliance checks performed by the TABC. David Posternak, the regional manager of Spare Time, did not dispute that the sale to a minor undercover buyer that took place on Aug. 15. The sale to a minor was found during a re-check after the first violation that happened in May. The bad sale was made by a bartender with 30 years of experience, he said. She followed the right procedures, asking for the ID, but said she had misread the date, mistaking an eight for a six. Mr. Posternak said the business purchased a scanner the next day and that bartender was terminated. The violation in May garnered a fine of $1,000 from the TABC since it was the first infraction for the business.  This second violation received a seven-day suspension of the TABC permit, which was mirrored by the beer board. The suspension will start on Sept. 29.

A representative from the Kangaroo/Circle K Store #3577, 3407 Amnicola Highway, failed to show up at the beer board meeting on Sept. 7 for the violation discovered during a check made by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 11. Mehul Shah, owner of the franchise for 10 Circle Ks in the Chattanooga area, was at the meeting Thursday morning and told the board that at the time of the last meeting, no one at the company had been notified of the violation or of the letter that had been hand delivered to a manager 10 days after the violation took place.

When he was notified that the board had suspended the beer license for that location was when he first became aware of it. After that, he said he reviewed film from security cameras and saw that, despite the cash register requiring an ID to sell alcohol, the clerk used a by-pass option in the system.  He said that the clerk had never asked to see an ID. To prevent underage sales in the future, he told the board that his managers would be sent to training classes. For this violation that was the first offense for the store, the penalty given was suspending the beer license seven days with the option of paying a fine of $1,000. 

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