Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Licensing Blog

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno is proposing a 1 a.m. closing time for all bars and clubs in the city, less than a month after a 1 a.m. curfew on entertainment in such establishments went into effect, as reported by the Springfield Republican.

Sarno is asking the city License Commission to consider a new 1 a.m. closing hour for local bars and clubs, believing the earlier hour would enhance public safety.

The idea drew immediate criticism from local lawyer Thomas J. Rooke, saying it would be the "final nail in the coffin" of local businesses.

Sarno's proposal occurs just two weeks after he imposed a 1 a.m. curfew on bar entertainment.

The curfew, which took effect April 7, allows bars to remain open until 2 a.m., the current closing hour, but requires them to turn off music, television sets and other forms of entertainment by 1 a.m., unless they obtain a "special late night entertainment permit." Ten restaurant-bars successfully applied for the late night permits.

Sarno said he is "supportive of a 1 a.m. closure," rather than the existing 2 a.m. closing time. The change, however, will require a public hearing and would need approval from the five-member License Commission, which is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.

"I am in favor of an earlier closing time as it brings continued continuity to closing time and more importantly better overall public safety to visitors, our neighborhood residents and to the business community ...," Sarno said in a prepared statement.

The earlier time "will result into a much more thriving positive business and economic development climate," Sarno said.

The nightclub at the center of a brawl in Lowell two months ago that led to 14 arrests and resulted in injuries to three police officers has lost its liquor license for three months, the Lowell Sun reported.

The city License Commission last week also rolled back the closing time at Club 44 inside Fortunato's Restaurant from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m. for an indefinite period and barred the club from having a disc jockey.

Police say chairs, tables and beer bottles were thrown during the brawl just before closing time on Feb. 10. Thirty officers, including every Lowell officer on duty as well as officers from Dracut, Tyngsborough, UMass-Lowell and state police, responded.

A lawyer for owner Yousef Ayyab told The Sun that his client is "ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated" by what happened.

The Boston Herald reports that Barstool Sports blogger Dave Portnoy is pulling the plug on his popular and much-protested "Blackout" raves at Boston's House of Blues, claiming club security and state liquor agents ruined a recent party, and ended up turning away about three-fourths of his paid customers.

"It just doesn't seem like Boston is friendly to nightlife of our sort, at least," Portnoy told the Herald. "It goes against everything our brand is trying to do, if we're doing events where we know kids are spending money and getting turned away."

Portnoy said Wednesday night's sold-out party, geared toward Boston College students, turned sour when security barred drinking-age guests who showed up with alcohol on their breath or with out-of-state IDs. Out of 2,000 tickets sold, he said, only about 500 people got inside.

Three investigators from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission were on hand and confiscated approximately 300 fake IDs, an agency spokesman told the Herald. The agents trolled the crowd for underage drinkers and anyone who appeared intoxicated.

"We were there to provide support, apply our expertise and to provide an appropriate level of enforcement," said Jon Carlisle, a spokesman for the state treasurer's office, which oversees the alcohol-control commission.

Portnoy's seven-year-old blog -- whose regular features include rating the attractiveness of female teachers charged with having sex with students -- has caught fire with the fraternity crowd nationwide, leading him to stage an ongoing series of dance parties, mostly up and down the East Coast. The $20-a-head dance parties have also drawn feminist protests, with critics saying his posts objectify women and promote a rape culture.

The Herald reported last month that there have been arrests, assaults and drunken incidents at several Blackout events across the country. The tour, which features Chicago-based DJ Dante, returns to Boston for two sold-out shows at the House of Blues on March 30 and April 6.

Portnoy says he plans to honor the two upcoming House of Blues dates currently scheduled -- Saturday and April 6 -- then move his Massachusetts parties elsewhere."We did an event in Worcester, and we'd happily go back there," he told the Herald.

The North Adams' General Governance Committee will recommend the city do without a "bring your own bottle" ordinance, at least for now, reports iberkshires.com

The topic has been under debate since last spring, when the owners of Big Shirl's informed the city they would allow it for evening hours and wanted to know if there were any requirements. The state has no regulations on diners bringing their own bottle of alcohol to restaurants that do not have liquor licenses.

The city's main concern has been over the issue of liability related to someone imbibing alcohol at a restaurant that allows BYOB.

"There is no liability on the city if it does nothing," City Solicitor John DeRosa told the committee on Wednesday. "If you choose to regulate it in some form ... it would fall logically under the Licensing Board, which would then have the obligation to enforce it. If there's any liability one picks up, it's probably at that interface of an enforcement issue -- that we properly enforce our laws."

A proposal to allow bars and restaurants in Massachusetts to sell discounted drinks is on hold, according to its two backers.

Senators James Timilty (D-Walpole) and Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), who sponsored the so-called "Happy Hour" amendment, told the State House News Service they are recommending a conference committee spend the next year evaluating current alcohol regulations.

The amendment, passed in October, was attached to the bill that would legalize casinos in Massachusetts.

Critics, including Ron Bersani, claim bringing back "Happy Hours" would encourage drunken driving. Bersani, whose granddaughter was killed by a drunken driver, said the change would widen the availability of alcohol.

Bill supporters disagree. "I'm not so sure having promotional drinks or free drinks is any major inducement to drunk driving," said Sen. Stephen Brewer (D-Barre), chairman of the Ways and Means committee.

Sens. Timility and Hedlund say the original ban on drink discounts, enacted in 1984, did not cause any measurable change in the number of drunken driving-related crashes in Massachusetts.

Interesting piece on patch.com about efforts afoot in the town of Braintree to reign in the sale of liquor licenses on the open or black market, and instead making it easier (and much cheaper) for prospective licensees to simply obtain the license directly from the town. Certainly favors the mom-and-pop type shops, who cannot afford to pay six figures for a license. Of course, if there were no quota system at all (like in New York), this would not be an issue.

Mass. Lawyers Weekly reports that a Boston nightclub could not be indemnified for a patron's injuries because it failed to present evidence that the man showed visible signs of intoxication earlier in the evening at a Chinese restaurant, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

The plaintiff nightclub, Felt Enterprises, argued that because defendant Chau Chow II did not monitor how much alcohol it served the patron, the Chinatown restaurant was liable under the "mode of operations" test announced by the Supreme Judicial Court in its landmark 2007 Sheehan v. Roche Bros. decision.

Even though the plaintiff in Sheehan could not establish how long a piece of food had been on the floor before it caused a slip and fall, SJC Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland held, in an issue of first impression, that the store owner who created the foreseeably dangerous condition could still be held responsible.

But Judge Bonnie H. MacLeod-Mancuso refused to apply the SJC's test to the nightclub's case, granting summary judgment in favor of the Asian eatery.

"The Plaintiff has not presented any authority extending the 'mode of operations' doctrine from the self-service premises liability context to the dram shop liability context," she wrote. "Considering the weight of authority against the Plaintiff's position, the 'mode of operations' approach does not apply to this case, and the Plaintiff cannot show that the Defendant had notice [the patron] was intoxicated while it was serving him alcoholic beverages."

Reuters reports that ignition devices that stop drivers from starting their vehicles if they are over the alcohol limit help prevent people convicted of driving under the influence from re-offending, according to a new study.

Re-arrest rates for alcohol-impaired driving decrease by 67 percent after the ignition interlocks are installed compared to drivers with suspended licenses, said the study by researchers at the Community Guide branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Around 200,000 vehicles in the United States are fitted with interlock devices that are used to prevent drunken driving by people convicted of such offenses.

"The very strong indication is that ignition interlocks work extremely well with preventing people with interlocks installed from re-offending," said Randy Elder, scientific director for systematic reviews at Community Guide, commenting on the study.

"In order to maximize the benefits of these interlocks in terms of preventing alcohol-impaired driving and crashes, we need to get more people (using them)," Elder said on Tuesday in an interview. He said the devices' deployment was growing.

Around 1.4 million people are arrested for driving under the influence in the United States each year and 1 million of those are convicted, Elder said.

The devices are typically mounted on the dashboard and include a tube into which the driver blows for analysis of alcohol breath content.

Typically their installation is part of a sentencing requirement or a state mandates it for certain offenders as a condition of acquiring a license. Use of the interlocks varies from state to state with New Mexico the leader, Elder said.

Crashes by people driving under the influence resulted in nearly 11,000 deaths in the United States in 2009, representing one third of all traffic deaths, the CDC said. The annual cost of impaired driving is $110 billion.

The review to be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine is based upon a systematic review of 15 scientific studies of ignition interlock devices.

The Sun Chronicle with a unique story on a Mansfield Japanese restaurant getting into some hot water for its free squirts of Sake.

Sake Steak House in Mansfield Crossing has reined in part of its popular "hibachi" dining performances after the restaurant received complaints from the parents of a 19-year-old customer.

Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O'Neill concluded that, in addition to serving an underage customer, the hibachi routine of spraying sake, a Japanese rice wine, into the mouths of customers, violated the state prohibition on offering free drinks and holding a contest or game involving alcohol.

O'Neill sent his complaint to Mansfield selectmen, the town licensing authority, who on Wednesday night announced they would hold a public disciplinary hearing for the restaurant "as soon as possible."

"I read the report and I am very disturbed by it," Selectman Jess Aptowitz said. "I think this is very serious." Spraying sake from squeeze bottles into the mouths of diners, often to the chant of "sake! sake!" has become a popular part of the "hibachi" experience.

"Hibachi," which in the United States also refers to small portable charcoal grills, in this context describes performance teppanyaki cooking where diners are seated around a chef who flips food and juggles utensils while cooking for them.

In addition to drinking, sake is also used in cooking and is an integral part of hibachi staples like the flaming onion volcano, where the alcohol is set alight.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kevin Shi, manager of Sake, said the incident involving the 19-year-old had been a result of poor judgment on the part of the chef working that night, who has since been let go.

"I think it was a big misunderstanding between the chef and the customer that night," Shi said. "We have corrected the problem."

Unlike other states with more liberal alcohol laws, Massachusetts prohibits alcohol promotions, such as happy-hour free drink specials. The state does allow businesses to offer free alcohol in wine tastings. Shi told the Sun Chronicle that since the complaint in late December, Sake Steak House is making sure that any free tastes of sake from chefs are of tiny amounts consistent with a wine tasting.

The Patriot Ledger reports that the Norwell police department has gotten all but two of the liquor license holders in town to agree to participate in its new designated driver program, which it hopes to launch before Thanksgiving.

Officer Tim O'Brien, who has spearheaded the effort, told the Ledger that nine of Norwell's bars and restaurants have joined the program and will offer free non-alcoholic beverages to people who volunteer to be a group's designated driver. "If someone designates themselves as the driver, they can't have even a beer or a glass of wine," O'Brien said.

Hingham police have run such a program for the last eight years and built up a 100 percent participation rate.

Most of Norwell's liquor license holders are on Route 53, but at least one is on Route 123. The move to establish an official designated driver program comes as Norwell police report an increase in the number of drunken-driving arrests.

Police Chief Theodore Ross did not offer statistics but he said arrests are on the rise due to a few factors.

"One is the vigilance of citizens who have cell phone and report erratic drivers, cars that almost hit a pole or are speeding," Ross said.

His officers have also stepped up enforcement, tapping grant funding aimed solely at catching drunken drivers.

Ross said the suspected drunken drivers caught in Norwell are not all coming from local bars and restaurants. Some are adults and underage drinkers who were at private parties.

O'Brien hopes to, before Thanksgiving, publicize the bars and restaurants that are participating in the designated driver program. Alcohol-related car crashes killed 108 people in Massachusetts in 2009, down from 148 in 2005, according to statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A group representing restaurants across the country is criticizing a federal bill that would require all cars to contain alcohol detection devices. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who is sponsoring the bill, wants to divert $60 million in existing road safety funds over a five-year period to develop affordable alcohol detection devices that would help to reduce drunk-driving incidents. According to the bill, the devices would become standard in all automobiles within five to 10 years.

The detectors would utilize technology that would enable a car to determine the driver's alcohol level through skin sensors, breathalyzers or even eye movements. If a detector determines that a driver's alcohol content exceeds a certain level, the car will not start. "Drunk driving is a scourge that touches countless families . and it's time to take a fresh approach to this problem that will keep drinkers from even starting a car," Schumer said at a press conference Wednesday. "This research will provide a new tool for parents and law enforcement to make sure that families and communities stay safe."

The American Beverage Institute, which represents 8,000 restaurants, issued a statement against the proposed bill, saying that the alcohol detectors for cars would likely be set below the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent.

"The head of the research project that this bill seeks to fund has even admitted that the devices would be set below the legal limit," the group stated. "This would effectively eliminate Americans' ability to have a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at a ball game, or a champagne toast at a wedding and drive home."

Schumer's bill, the Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere, or ROADS SAFE, Act, is part of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010.

"Alcohol detection technology is a great way to keep hardcore drunk drivers - those who cause the vast majority of alcohol-impaired fatalities - from being able to start their cars while drunk," the ABI said in its statement. "But we shouldn't be developing this technology with the aim of putting it in everyone's car."

All establishments serving alcohol must be aware of a newly-enacted law mandating that all liquor licensees provide proof of Liquor Liability coverage with their local licensing authority when applying for or renewing a liquor license. The minimum coverage limit is $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence, and takes effect on August 28, 2010. The insurance is intended to address the situation where a customers was over-served alcohol, and then left the facility and caused injury to someone else while intoxicated.

Chapter 116 of the Acts of 2010 amends Mass. G. L. Chapter 138 Sec. 12, the law in Massachusetts that governs issuance of liquor licenses.