The Boston Licensing Board today ordered a State Street bar to shut down for three days for an incident in which detectives found an underage woman with a bottle of beer while other patrons were playing a game similar to beer pong, only with water.
The board's decision on the Nov. 19 incident at Goodbar, 181 State St., does not specify how much of the punishment is for the underage drinking and how much for the water pong. However, a three-day suspension is far stiffer than the board usually metes out for an underage drinker. In fact, it's a harsher punishment than Mantra in Downtown Crossing got today for failing to cooperate with a police investigation into a brawl that sent a man to the hospital for two days with a concussion, head wound and broken eye socket. In that case, the board ruled Mantra had to shut for two days.
At a hearing on Tuesday, a bar manager said water pong was just a "silly" diversion for customers that, unlike beer pong, involves no alcohol and no drinking from cups into which ping-pong balls have landed. She compared it to darts, backgammon and foosball, which, also unlike beer pong, are allowed in Boston bars.
But after hearing a police detective say he observed a customer taking swigs from a bottle of beer in his hand whenever his opponent scored, board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer said she didn't see any real difference between chugging down a cup with a ping-pong ball and beer in it and a bottle of beer.
Goodbar can appeal the decision to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
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Comments
Bars, be on notice
By anon²
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 3:09pm
The board sees no difference between "sipping" and "chugging".
If your patrons are "sipping" beers, watch out. You will be dragged before the board and possibly closed.
Alcohol consumption will not be tolerated.
Congratulations, Ferrer
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 3:12pm
You are now officially the most ignorant and clueless person in Boston. Seriously, why are you so terrible? Did you get picked on when you were a kid? In what reality are you living?
You're going to put these people out of work for three days because they ran a water pong game? Show me the tape where the patron was forced at gunpoint to drink the beer in conjunction with a converted shot attempt during the game. No, really, do it, because that's the only (expletive) excuse you could possibly have for punishing the bar on these grounds.
What an awful mean-spirited person she is. I really can't believe it. I thought girls were supposed to be nice.
I'd like to know
By anon²
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 9:35pm
What law they broke. Really, what law? Subjective opinion on no difference between sipping and chugging is just that, and deserves no place in a board meeting.
If this was punishment for the underage drinking, which has merit, then so be it. Don't lecture and intimidate the bar over the other citation which was given out incorrectly, per the letter of the law, and you have no authority over.
Inevitably this is just a
By anon
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 4:32pm
Inevitably this is just a commission making a decision about something they can only define by its stereotype. People hear the magic formula of Cups, Liquid, and Ping-pong balls and their minds go straight to a re-enactment of Animal House with a dingy banquet table with cups and a bunch of people wasted playing Beirut.
I think it's safe to assume that the person that was observed "Chugging" the beer was probably drinking the last of their pint, getting ready for their next. Seems like something that was reasonably innocuous that was taken out of context and used as a basis for a complaint(citation) that was already made. How many bars can anybody think of where something that wasn't inherently a drinking game became one? Darts? Billiards? Hell even flipping an empty cup can be drank to. Why not fine the bars for supplying the darts, cues or plastic cups?
Not that I really care that much....
By Pete Nice
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 6:16pm
but this is basically the city telling bars:
Listen, if you want to promote games that are sometimes associated with drinking (and according to the detective, this was in fact a drinking game), you better make sure there aren't any underaged people in your bar.
So... no cards, no tvs...
By Harmy G
Thu, 12/15/2011 - 6:27pm
I really hope television drinking games catch on so these guys can come into a bar and watch everyone "chug a beer" when Kramer enters Jerry's apartment. They will be so aghast! They will suspend the bar's license for 3 nights and remove all TVs.