The Safety and Licensing Committee met 06/28/2023. Much of the meeting was taken up with discussion on the Class B Beer Permit application for Core’s Lounge which was ultimately denied. They also took up another alcohol license related issue which was the public appearance of a representative of Sushi Lover to review their recent alcohol license violations and explain what they were doing to prevent violations in the future.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Sushi Lover had accrued 120 demerit points related to a couple incidents, one being serving alcohol without a licensed operator/bartender on the premises and the other serving alcohol to an underage patron.
Jian, the manager of Sushi Lover, appeared before the committee. If I could distill what he told the committee down to its essence, he basically explained to the committee that when they were told they needed a licensed bartender/operator on the premises in order to serve alcohol, he himself went and took the test that night so they could serve alcohol the next day, and then some other managers also got bartender/operator licenses so they would always have someone who was licensed on the premises. They also had a violation regarding serving alcohol to an underaged patron which was the result of a Police Department sting. In response, Sushi Lover implemented stricter ID carding policies.
My impression is that there was a bit of a language barrier, none of which is conveyed by what I wrote above. While Jian came across as a nice person, it wasn’t clear to me how much he understood about the various rules regarding serving alcohol.
Sushi Lover had accrued 120 demerit points. Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) asked Jian, “Are you familiar with the rules and the how the points work?”
Jian responded, “Not really.”
Alderperson Croatt went on to explain, “So at 150 to 199 would result in a suspension of your license. So, you’re at 120. An additional violation would put them—within a certain time period—would put them at that level, just so you know.”
Overall, Alderperson Croatt seemed to think they were showing and effort to rectify the issues going forward, and none of the other committee members had any questions or made any comments.
[I feel like Jian and by extension Sushi Lover were definitely open to improving and making changes in response to feedback, and they didn’t seem to be intentionally breaking the rules about serving alcohol, but I would not be surprised if Sushi Lover ended up back in front of the Safety and Licensing Committee facing a suspension because they didn’t seem to be very knowledgeable about the law and best practices surrounding the sale of alcohol.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1099732&GUID=8D2D9E21-E538-4FFD-AAF5-31478650D37B
Be the first to reply