2008.08.14
Busted: alcohol service outside the law
From July 2007 through June 2008, the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control board issued final orders – verdicts – in nearly 1,100 cases against companies selling beer, wine and liquor in the state.
Well more than half of the cases involve selling alcohol to under age buyers – those under 21. Get the details on every case in a database now available in the DataSphere. The data comes from the Virginia ABC Board.
If you’re like me, you’ll go straight for the biggest and baddest.
Biggest fine? That’s $26,500, a penalty earned by O’Meara’s Restaurant and Pub in Manassas, Va., which “URGED OR ENTICED PATRONS TO PURCHASE AB, MADE GIFTS OF AB 8 TIMES, ADVERTISED HAPPY HOUR 7 TIMES, SERVED INTOXICATED PATRONS 2 TIMES, ALLOWED INTOXICATED PATRONS TO LOITER 2 TIMES, ALLOWED CONSUMPTION BY INTOXICATED PATRONS 6 TIMES.”
The number two, offender, notably, is in Roanoke. Montano’s International restaurant on Franklin Road was fined $12,500 and had it’s license suspended for 8 days. It was a repeat offense.
In all, 37 stores, bars and restaurants in Roanoke and Roanoke county were cited, along with 15 in Blacksburg and 8 in Christiansburg. Note that not all charges lead to “convictions,” as it were. In 36 cases charges were dismissed.
