Five businesses were penalized Thursday morning at a meeting of the Chattanooga Beer Board for violations of the city’s beer ordinances relating to age and overcrowding.
Poblanos Mexican Bar & Grill, 551 River St., was caught selling beer to a minor on Jan. 24 by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission when conducting a follow-up compliance check for a previous violation that took place on July 14, 2016.
The TABC had discovered another violation prior to those two, which had been penalized with a monetary fine. The restaurant/bar has only been open for two years, and already has accumulated three violations.
Information is sent to the beer board after the TABC finds a second violation that earns a suspension of the liquor license. When that occurs, if the beer board also finds the business guilty, the penalty must mirror what was given by the TABC. In this case, the July 14 breach received a five-day suspension of the permit to sell alcohol and wine, and the violation found on Jan. 24 received a 30-day suspension. Both were duplicated by the beer board. The first suspension will begin on Friday and the second piggy-backed to it will start next Wednesday.
Three violations when the business has been opened only two years earned the anger of Christopher Keene, chairman of the beer board. He said to the manager, “I don’t want you to have a license,” and “You’re a tragedy about to happen.” He added, “I don’t think you need to be in this business.” But he noted that the chairman is not allowed to make a motion. He dismissed the owner of the bar with “Don’t come back here.” If there is another violation, board member Trevor Atchley warned that the license would likely be revoked.
On Feb. 2, Chattanooga Police Officer John Collins, along with representatives from the TABC, did a bar check at Jefferson’s, 618 Georgia Ave. They had been tipped that underage drinking had been taking place at the bar. The business is a restaurant with 85 percent of sales in food, but on Thursday nights it had been staying open later for “Thursday College Night.” On Feb. 2, "chaos" was a good way to describe the situation, said owner Nick Carulla. It had gotten out of hand because, he said, the doorman was not doing a good job, allowing people in that were under the age of 18. Officer Collins said there was no control of the situation, and he found people using fake IDs and people under the age of 18 and without wristbands, drinking from pitchers that others had ordered. Six arrests were made that night by the TABC.
To prevent this from reoccurring, Jefferson’s has stopped sponsoring “Thursday College Nights.” Servers also had to retake TABC training. The restaurant’s beer license was also suspended for five days beginning March 16.
RAW, 409 Market St., was cited to the board for overcrowding. Not long before closing on Feb. 5, Officer Collins and Chuck Hartung with the Chattanooga Fire Department, did a bar check at the business and discovered severe overcrowding on the second level. The approved capacity is 170 upstairs that serves as a dance club, and 85 downstairs. That night, said Officer Collins, there were very few customers downstairs, but so many people upstairs that he said even in uniform, it took eight minutes for him to weave through the crowd to get to the other side of the room. And, he added in police uniform, “I usually get through crowds a little faster than that.” He said, "You just could not move.".
Mr. Hartung decided to “dump” the club, stopping the music and making everyone leave through one exit while being counted. They found 262 leaving the building, mostly all from upstairs. People were being counted as they came in the door, said Jim Striker, owner of RAW, but after getting in, they were allowed to move upstairs or down, without being counted. He has now hired another person to monitor the crowds internally, by using a clicker as people go up the stairs. A three-day suspension of the beer license will begin March 23 and end March 26.
Red Lobster, 2200 Bams Dr. near Hamilton Place Mall, sold beer to a minor on May 26, 2016. It was found by the TABC during a follow up check that was made because the same thing had happened previously. The TABC referred the violation from May to the Beer Board. The restaurant has a new manager since the time of the violation, and she required all of the staff to get an ABC permit. She has also instigated a self-compliance procedure and all customers are carded regardless of appearance, she said. The beer board’s penalty matched that given by the state. The suspension of the beer permit for seven days will begin next Thursday.
A clerk at Mapco, 4600 Highway 58, sold beer to a minor during a bar check on Jan. 27 that was conducted by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and the Hamilton County Coalition. The clerk failed to ask for an ID and was terminated immediately, said the district manager. Mapco is in the Responsible Vendor Program, which gives the beer board the ability to issue a monetary penalty for the first offense. This store was penalized with a fine of $250.
An event benefiting Autism and Behavior Services will take place March 3 at the Bicentennial Library in Chattanooga. This will be a “Trivia Night” and silent auction. There will be seven rounds of Trivia with tables competing against each other. It will be catered by A Dish and Pass.
Another fundraiser, Strides of March, is an Aids walk to benefit Chattanooga Cares. This has taken place for the past 22 years on a Sunday afternoon, but has changed days and locations this year to the Blue Goose Hollow Trailhead, 876 W. 9th Ave., the new section of the Chattanooga River Walk. It will be held Saturday, March 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. There will be live music before the walk from the trailhead to Ross’s Landing. There will be two food trucks and two pony kegs available to serve the 200-250 people that are expected. Funds are raised by a fee to join one of the teams and sponsors for the event.