Silhouette’s Bikini Sports Bar & Grill, 1401 E. 23rd St., is considered to be “a neutral zone,” owner Jesse Raymond Kinsey Jr. told the Chattanooga Beer Board Thursday. That is one of the reasons that the establishment has been able to have the private “birthday party” for A.D. Patton for the last eight years, he said. Mr. Patton was “well respected in his community,” said Mr. Kinsey. He died in a gang related killing 18 years ago. The “birthday party” held at Silhouettes gets bigger each year, said Mr. Kinsey, and it is the biggest night of the year for the bar, he said.
Beer Inspector Jason Wood with the Chattanooga Police Department had just received an email of notification from the Tennessee Treasury Office that the business license for Silhouette’s had not been renewed for the year. At the same time, he became aware that the party was taking place on Feb. 17 through information coming from the CPD Intelligence unit.
Having no business license made it illegal for the bar to sell beer, and Sergeant Wood went to the bar that night and notified the owner, Mr. Kinsey, that he could not sell beer without a license. He then left, the board was told.
While he was at Silhouettes, Sgt. Wood said someone was behind the bar serving beverages and people were consuming what appeared to be beer. The bar is grandfathered in to allow brown-bagging, Mr. Kinsey told the officer. The party continued that night.
Mr. Kinsey told the beer board that the location is one of the most volatile in town. The party was for a “fallen member of a certain type,” that is held annually on his birthday, he said. In the eight years that the party has been held at Silhouettes, he said he has never had a problem. Because the club is a neutral zone, he said that in the past, he has had members of four gangs there on the same night.
When Sgt. Wood wanted him to stop the party on Feb. 17, he told the board members that it had already started. He continued, that if he had told people that it was being shut down, he feared that would have created problems in other parts of town that would be “horrific.” So, the bar’s owner asked Sgt. Woods to just write the citation.
Mr. Kinsey said that he is "not a Blue Light or Coyote Jack’s" because he treats people in the club with respect, which helps prevent the place from becoming so volatile.
He said e had attempted to renew his business license since Dec. 29 and there were delays by the state resulting in not getting the license restored until March 1 when the beer permit from the city was also reinstated. He said that after the party on Feb. 17, he locked his coolers and did not sell beer until he had the new permit.
Board member Dan Mayfield said that Mr. Kinsey took responsibility for what he did and made the motion to not sustain the violation, but that motion received no second. Board Member Christie Morris said that the bar had been “given a break,” for a previous violation in November 2023, and Mr. Mayfield made a second motion for giving Silhouettes a three-day suspension of its beer license, which passed. It will begin on March 21 and end at 3 a.m. on March 24.
The owner commented that he still has the ability to allow brown-bagging during that time rather than selling beer. He just will not lose as much money as he would by being completely closed.