One violation of the Chattanooga beer code was heard by the Beer Board on Thursday. Owner of Chatty’s Restaurant, 2301 Milne St., was cited to the meeting for operating a disorderly business. The Chattanooga Police have been noticing an on-going problem at the location and recognize that the business is escalating to become a hot spot in the city. When the nearby bar The Night Owl closed, the crowds moved over to Chatty’s, the board was told. Officer Collins brought the charges to the board after a particularly bad night, beginning on July 31 into Aug.
1, he said.
There is no other business open in that district from Wilcox Boulevard to Citico Avenue and so police are accustomed to watching the bar from the parking lots across the street. They also receive many calls from the business to help clear the parking lot and to escort people to and from Chatty’s to their cars. The night of this series of incidents, police were called three times. The first was in response to images of three people carrying guns outside the building, detected by Chattanooga’s Real-Time Center Intelligence cameras, and from employees asking for escorts for the rapper that would be performing that night, and to break up a fight.
The first police arrived to see a patron of the place exit with a gun, get in a car and speed away down Dodson Avenue. At the same time a fight between two females who were leaving the building broke out just outside the front door, and more police were called for help to control the situation. Body camera videos showed a crowd standing around yelling and screaming while security broke up the fight.
The owner of the business, Diamound Brown, joined in and became argumentative, the board was told. She was shouting at the officers and for the people inside to lock the doors. The officers asked Ms. Brown to close down the business for the night and she responded with yelling and screaming. That escalated to vulgar language which just ramped things up, said Chattanooga Police Officer John Collins.
In addition to photographs of three customers with guns in their possession, the beer board was also shown photographs of a private security guard holding an AR15 machine gun in the air above his head and another swinging a machine gun by his side. It is not legal for a security guard to have a machine gun while they are on duty as a guard, said Officer Collins. The owner of the security company confirmed that his agents were not authorized to have the machine guns.
Another officer Investigator (Chris Brown) with the organized criminal bureau left another job nearby when he heard additional calls for help and came to Chatty’s. He said that he left one gun call to respond to another and found about 150 people exiting, found drugs and loaded fire arms. Every other officer in the district was eventually directed to go help at Chatty’s that night, leaving the other parts of the city without police protection.
The problems started in the parking lot but Officer Collins told Ms. Brown, the owner, that she should know that according to the beer code, she is responsible for behavior in the parking lots that her customers use.
Several beer board members also said they felt misled. When Diamound Brown applied for the original beer license in November 2020, they were told it would be a full-service restaurant and that beer would be sold just to go along with the food. Since then, however, she has received permission to stay open until 3 a.m., now has live music and has said most of her profit is made after midnight. Assistant City Attorney Melinda Foster told the board that there is no difference in a beer license which would allow sales for either or both types of businesses.
A motion to give Chatty’s a 30-day suspension of its beer license failed with the majority of the board feeling it was too harsh a penalty. A suspension of the beer license for 15 days beginning Sept. 2 passed unanimously. Attorney Marty Lasley, representing Chatty’s, indicated he would appeal the penalty.