Underage BC students once again get Cleveland Circle pizza place in trouble

Boston Police detectives report finding three underage Boston College students - one just 19 - quaffing draft Bud Light at Agoros Bar and Grill, 356 Chestnut Hill Ave., early on July 14.

It's the latest such incident involving the pizza place, which has quickly become the go-to place in Cleveland Circle for beer-mad BC students with fake IDs - or, in some cases, their older sibling's purloined licenses.

This time, though co-owner Dimitrios Liakos told the Boston Licensing Board this morning, he's going to crack down on the young 'uns but good. He said he's stopped hiring BC seniors as doormen and has instead hired the same security company the nearby Cityside uses to separate the legal wheat from the underage chaff. He's also met with BC's director of community affairs to solicit the college's help in making Agoros as off limits to would be underage drinkers as Cityside - and even Mary Ann's.

Liakos added he's looking at also hiring BPD details on weekend nights, at least as school re-opens for the fall, "to try to intimidate or scare" the younger crowd from trying to order a beer.

Liakos said that he or one of his partners will try to work the door most nights to add a further layer of security - in part by asking young-looking people with out-of-state IDs questions that can trip them up, such as their favorite restaurant in their supposed home towns or even their horoscope sign. Oftentimes, "they start freaking out," and admit their attempted duplicity, he said.

Board Chairwoman Christine Pulgini said Liakos better make sure the measures work. "Your livelihood is at stake," she told him.

In May, the board ordered the place shut for seven days because of incidents in April and February in which police found drinkers under 21 inside. This is on top of a one-day suspension for a January incident. Agoros has been open less than a year.

Pulgini asked Liakos if he had talked to Mary Ann's owner to see how she's cracked down on underage drinking in the two years since the board traveled all the way to Cleveland Circle to hear pent-up complaints from fed-up Cleveland Circle residents.

Liakos said he had, but he wasn't sure that Mary Ann's system, which he didn't detail, "works as well as it should."

"I don't think you should be throwing stones," Pulgini replied.

Liakos's attorney, Curt Bletzer, told the board that Liakos and partners are still trying to get Agoros to its original proposed state as a restaurant, rather than a bar. The partners signed a 20-year-lease for the space where Roggie's used to be. He noted that Liakos and his brother run a family-owned restaurant in Somerset that has been open since the 1980s.