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State not much enamored of Cleveland Circle pizza place, either; orders 7-day suspension of liquor license
By adamg on Thu, 12/28/2017 - 9:41am
A Chestnut Hill Avenue pizza place that has racked up more than two weeks' worth of license suspensions and a rollback in hours by the Boston Licensing Board over the past year because underage BC students keep finding ways to get drinks will have to stop selling alcohol for a week next month after state alcohol agents found four underage drinkers.
In a decision issued earlier this month, the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission ordered a 7-day halt to alcohol sales at Agoros Bar and Grill starting Jan. 24.
The board actually ordered a 17-day suspension based on findings by its own inspectors, but suspended 10 days of that if the pizza place can stay out of trouble for two years.
According to the board's decision, three ABCC inspectors paid a surprise visit to Agoros around 10:30 p.m. on March 30 and found four underage drinkers, between 18 and 20, two with beers, two with vodkas and cranberry juice. One handed over a fake South Carolina license; the other three swore they just walked in and were never asked for ID.
This comes a month after the commission ordered a three-day suspension after a May inspection during which ABCC agents testified they found three underage drinkers, two with fake out-of-state IDs and one who said she slipped a doorman $20 to get in. That suspension started yesterday.
At Boston Licensing Board hearings, co-owner Dimitrios Liakos has said he has since installed a new state-of-the-art ID scanner - with a facial-recognition system - and replaced all of the BC students who had worked the door with older bouncers. However, earlier this month, the licensing board rolled back Agoros's closing time from 1 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. after Boston police detectives cited it for the eighth time after they found an underage drinker on Oct. 22 - less than two weeks after another hearing on an underage drinker found by the detectives.
ABCC decision and findings (109k PDF).
Agoros opened in the fall of 2016.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
What do they have to do to lose their license?
If they took one away, the rest might take this more seriously. I'm surprised that this establishment hasn't tried to sell it while they still can.
History
Agoros recently replaced Roggie's b/c they got into a spot of bother.
Greek pizza place replaced another Greek pizza place.
IMHO, they want the BC student money, but they don't want to be responsible.
How about targeting another group? There are plenty of post-college neighbors who would go there with a few minor adjustments, like if the music wasn't deafening.(ah, just getting older and crankier)
they should sell their
they should sell their license to someone who will open a place that will cater to the new 55+ building opening up in the spring (and the hotel that opens up later in 2018) that are a block away.
I was about to ask the same thing?
Take it away and give it to someone who needs it and won't abuse it.
Government seizure
Say no to such abuse. As for who "needs" it, may I read your extensive market research?
The government giveth
And the government taketh away. That’s how liquor licenses work, in theory.
You're making my point
Garbage notion.
Pretty Simple
Cleavland Circle Pizza made a voluntary choice to enter a contract with the government. Don't sign up for a liquor license if you do not agree to the terms.
Exactly
I mean, even during the suspension, they can still serve food. After all, their name is basically "geographic area" pizza.
Voluntary?
Here were their choices:
1) Seek the government's permission
2) Don't seek the government's permission and then get told to stop by people with guns who will lock you in a cage
No kidding they sought the government's permission. We're not arguing the facts here, this is about opinions on what the position of the state should be.
Or Option 3
Don't open a pizza shop at all.
At least not until the legislation you seek is passed. It's fine and dandy if you disagree with legislation, but you'd have to be an idiot to put your name in ink on something binding that you don't agree with.
How about do something? Petition government. Collect signatures. Get looser liquor laws on the ballot.
Don't sign a paper that says you agree to things you have no plans on enforcing and then get all whiny that they enforced your voluntary contract. It is voluntary. They didn't have to open that business.
BTW, other bars in the area aren't constantly getting slapped with this, so it's obvious there is a system that keeps out obvious underage drinkers. Some bars had problems with this and they found ways to fix it. This leads to the obvious conclusion that Cleveland Circle Pizza isn't taking the concrete steps to curb this because they want to collect the profits from underage patrons. Hmmm, wonder why they are getting busted.
Merry-go-round
All right, that's two turns. Put in another quarter.
Is it a Merry-go-round filled with strawmen?
When you don't have any logical counterpoints, just use a strawman argument and drive a false narrative!
Will saw that I brought up a third option and didn't actually have a counterpoint to it, so he drove a false narrative that I repeated myself.
I pretty thoroughly explained how there was a third option, it is voluntary, and even offered a new solution that would fix the problem for him and for everyone. I actually have a whole amusement park full of new fresh ideas. All you got is that one strawman.
People I trust to make the decision
of who should sell alcohol, fireworks, nicotine, etc, in ranked order:
1. Benevolent omniscient ubermensch
2. Me old mum
.....
23. Democratically elected reps or their appointed surrogates
.....
4396. My 4-year-old daughter, who can be bought with a SnoCone or intimidated with a stern look
.....
12402. Free market libertarians
My stock answer
What do you fear?
Joke
I guess this places only option left is to hire top notch bouncers with a homeland security background to make sure 20 year olds with their older siblings' IDs stop pondering in to grab a Corona. ***LETS ALL REMEMBER: This is a pizza parlor not a bar***
***LETS ALL REMEMBER: This is
It's both really. The only time this place ever has any customers is on weekend nights when they have a DJ blaring music and college kids dancing.
Then let's outlaw dancing by
Then let's outlaw dancing by gosh! That'll keep those pesky kids in check.
/s
Let's all remember
This latest incident did not involve underage drinking but an attempt to cover up a fight that somehow resulted in multiple people visiting emergency rooms for stitches, but no blood.
Well ...
The hearing was continued, so the board has yet to rule on it. All of the suspensions so far are related to underage drinkers.
What about the lying, bribing, government ID counterfeiters?
Is that the kind of graduate that Boston College wants to put out now?
No bribery involved
You can go online and get a decent fake ID for about $150 now. Might be a fine line, but no government bribery is involved.
bribery
.
It may not be *government* bribery, but slipping a doorman $20 to get in is still bribery, no?
Fine Print
Sure, except they can buy their way out of this, if you read the fine print. Check out the fine-in-lieu of suspension bull that the state treasury/abc uses to try to balance their budget.
Fine Print
Yup, except they can buy their way out of this, as easily as an 18 year old can buy a fake ID.
Check out the fine-in-lieu of suspension bull that the state treasury/abc uses to try to balance their budget.
And Debbie Goldberg's Task Force is recommending acceptance of out of state IDs in concert with higher fines for selling to a minor and accepting a false id. Way to go Deb!
Vodkas and cranberry juice?
“Vodkas cran” sounds tight, in a pedantic “mothers-in-law” Strunk and White sort of way, but I don’t know if it works when you expand the contraction. Vodka cranberry juices? Vodkas cranberry juices? Vodkas with cranberry juice (to disambiguate)?
Screw it, grammar is hard, let’s get a drink instead. I know just the place, if anyone misplaced their ID.
I hate admit it
But I did wonder why the kid got into trouble for drinking cranberry juice. The kid with the vodka, sure, but the other kid had me scratching my head.
Hmmmmmm......
Guilt by association, maybe.