Booze Code Change Brings Slew of Violations

A change in the Atlanta alcohol code recently tripped up dozens of restaurants, bars and package stores, resulting in a wave of $1,000 fines handed out by the city’s License Review Board.

But many unwitting violators got the last laugh when the city sent the wrong code citation, effectively letting them off the hook for a fine.

At a typical twice-monthly meeting, the LRB might hear two or three cases in which a business failed to renew its liquor license. At the board’s May 3 meeting, however, nearly four dozen individual violations were on the agenda, including those for 12 restaurants at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that are overseen by city contractor Concessions/Paschal’s.

“The city changed the process this year without really telling anyone,” says Jonathan McIntyre, general manager of the Brewhouse Pub in Little Five Points. Brewhouse was among at least 11 lucky businesses that got out of paying a fine when the city discovered it had sent them the wrong citation.

In past years, the city has sent license-holders a renewal form around the first of the year, which is supposed to be returned with a nonrefundable $150 application fee. If the application is approved by the LRB, then the business is expected to pay the license fee, which costs $4,750 for a beer and wine license and $5,000 for a bar with full liquor service.

Previously, license-holders had until March to send in their renewal fees. But this year the LRB mandated that businesses send in the full fee at the same time they submitted their application in January. Those whose renewal applications were eventually rejected would have their license fees returned, explains city attorney Shelitha Robinson, who says many of those cited “just didn’t read the new ordinance.”

A Paschal’s representative complained of the rules changes and claimed the LRB hadn’t sent the proper renewal forms, but the company was fined $12,000 anyway. And it wasn’t alone; the list of recent violators reads like a who’s who of Atlanta restaurants: Eno in Midtown; Brasserie Le Coze, Capital Grille and Anis in Buckhead; and Fat Matt’s on Piedmont Road.

But Landon Brown, co-owner of Teaspace, also in L5P, agrees with McIntyre: “The city didn’t communicate the changes very clearly.”

Brown is hoping the city will reconsider his $1,000 fine, especially since his cozy, Japanese-style tea room - which offered a small wine and beer menu - is closing its doors this week. The slap by the LRB wasn’t the only factor in pushing Teaspace over the edge, Brown says, but is emblematic of the institutional hurdles that stood in the way of success.

Echoing complaints by other independent bar and restaurant owners that have circulated in Atlanta in recent months, Brown says, “There’s not a favorable atmosphere for small businesses in the city right now.”??