by John Hunt
posted May 15, 2008
Five businesses in the Chattanooga area have been given suspensions of their beer licenses for recent charges of sales to underage consumers.
The Chattanooga Beer/Wrecker Board on Thursday morning heard testimony from a 19-year-old buyer who successfully purchased alcoholic beverages at four restaurants and one carry-out store.
Those four restaurants, located in the vicinity of Hamilton Place, include O'Charley's, The Acropolis, The American Cafe and Sticky Fingers. Each of their beer licenses will be suspended for three days, beginning May 22.
The carry-out store was Tienda Maya, located at 1939 Central Avenue.
The incident at O'Charley's took place on April 12 when the teen ordered a beer and was served without properly checking his identification. The server in question failed to follow business policy and was terminated the next day.
The youth also ordered a beer at the American Cafe on the same day. His ID was checked and he was served anyway. The server reportedly "misread the dates in question." That server is still employed there and has been a strong advocate for other employees in their training to prevent such incidents from taking place, it was stated.
A similar situation occurred at The Acropolis, where the buyer again ordered a beer, had his ID checked and was promptly served the beverage he had just ordered. The employee in question is 56 years old and reportedly "showed no remorse for her action." That suspension was five days due to previous violations.
Almost the same thing happened at Sticky Fingers, where the teen's ID was checked after his order was placed and he was quickly served. In this case, the server was given a written warning and suspended from work for a week.
The owner at Tienda Maya was charged with two counts of underage sales and they took place within minutes of each other on April 26. The buyer walked in, pulled a single beer from the cooler and made the purchase without being checked for proof of age.
Apparently, the woman making the sale is the wife of the store owner and could not speak English. That charge also netted a three-day suspension.
While police officers were waiting for the initial purchase attempt to begin, they noticed a car full of teenagers pull in. A young lady went in and purchased three six-packs, even getting assistance from another employee in carrying her beer to the car, it was stated.
She was questioned by the officer about her age and did not produce an ID, although she later admitted being only 18 after first saying she was 21.
One of the beer board members spoke up and was quite critical of the store operation.
"This is a flagrant violation of the law. What kind of message are we sending when they will help you carry it to the car?" he asked.
The business owner, who also could not speak fluent English, but had a translator, admitted that a mistake was made and reassured the board members that he would do everything in his power to make sure the law was carried out in the future.
He was given an additional seven-day suspension for 10 days total.
Alcohol permits were also issued for several special events, which will be held in the near future.
Those included the Nightfall Concert Series, which starts May 23 and goes through September on Friday nights. The Friends of the Festival also got a permit for the Riverbend Festival, which will be at Ross's Landing on June 6-14.
Others included the M.L.K. Merchants for the Bessie Smith Strut, a popular Riverbend event on Monday, June 9, and North Shore Grille for American Cycles at 3208 Rossville Blvd. and Thunder Creek Cycles, located at 7720 Lee Highway.
Yet another temporary license was granted to Daniel Lagraff, who will be celebrating his 60th birthday with a party at 1251 Market St. on June 14. When questioned about how they will monitor alcohol sales with regard to minors, Mr. Lagraff laughed and said, "I don't think anyone less than 40 has been invited, so I don't think that will be a problem."
Five other businesses applied for beer licenses and four of the five were granted, including Mr. Greek at 8174 East Brainerd Road for a consumer/carry-out license, Southern Star at 1300 Broad Street, Contrapasso, LLC, a consumer license for special events at 1800 Rossville Ave. and a carry-out license for the new BI-LO Superstore at 5604 Hixson Pike, which will open next week.
The new owner of Club Phoenix applied for a license, but it was passed until the next meeting when more final business details are completed with the old owner. That business is located at 4251 Bonny Oaks Dr., which was the former Governor's location.
The only wrecker application processed involved AA Wench & Tow, located near Red Bank. This has been an existing business for several years, but the location has changed and the name has been changed as well. All requirements had been met and that license was approved as well.
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