Sake Pays Dearly for Alcohol Fines

Selectmen held feet to the fire Wednesday for owners of , a new hibachi restaurant in town, fining them $1000 and voting for an official reprimand. The deal was punishment for a sake-squirting incident in December that ended up with a 19-year-old youth on the wrong end of the squirt bottle. 

Also at the Feb. 9 meeting, over the objections of some on the board, selectmen handed the Mansfield a one-day liquor license suspension, for over-serving its own bar manager. The manager, John Camera, was then involved in a pedestrian accident that resulted in injuries to two people, one of them a toddler. Camara failed a field sobriety test and a Breathalyzer test at the station after he was brought in. 

"But for the grace of God there were no fatalities involved," said board member Olivier Kozlowski.

Selectman Jess Aptowitz said his own uncle was killed in an accident with a drunk driver.

 "Alcohol is a serious issue,” said Aptowitz. “We are charged with making sure the license is well-kept." 

Selectman Doug Annino agreed.

"The manager was in charge of the bar," he said. "This is a very serious lack of judgment. I'm not sure a one-day suspension is adequate." 

The VFW discussion was the continuation of a liquor license violation hearing that began several weeks ago. The hearing continued because Roger Ferris, attorney for the VFW, wanted the officers involved at the scene of the North Main Street incident to be present for the hearing. Only Police Chief Arthur O'Neill was in attendance at the first meeting. Though one of the officers was present, on Feb. 9, he was not called to testify.

  "We left it to you - we didn't get into all the bells and whistles," Ferris said. "The VFW doesn't want to be treated any differently. We are a third party. We asked for a hearing, and we put forth a case."  "The question is, did someone serve an individual that was obviously impaired? Did we breach our responsibility and serve someone who was obviously intoxicated?" Ferris asked.

After failed motions proposing a two-day suspension, and a one-day suspension on a weekend, the board finally passed a one-day compromise, to be levied during the week, on a Tuesday, when the establishment is not busy.  Members reasoned the VFW had not been involved in any violations in over ten years, a fact that was presented by O'Neill. "The VFW runs a good house," Chief O'Neill told the board, after being asked what he would think a just reprimand should be. "One day's suspension would be fair.”

The one-day suspension passed 4 to 1, with Annino opposed.

Sake, the town's newest restaurant, and the only traditional live-theater hibachi establishment, was not so lucky.  Although owner Kevin Shi apologized and said the restaurant was no longer squirting the Japanese rice wine known as sake into customer's mouths, using soda instead, board members were not impressed.  Slapping the restaurant with three separate violations - serving liquor to an under-aged person, delivering free drinks, and promoting a game or contest involving alcohol, the board could only agree on an appropriate punishment after a five minute recess and a compromise proposal by Town Manager William Ross.

 "You are a new establishment," cautioned Annino. "For you to have three violations concerns me. The manager should have known what was going on. This is not a frat house - it's a restaurant. Your reputation is at stake. This sort of thing shouldn't happen in our town, or any town... We have to make it clear to the management and the staff that this will not go on." 

Shi said the original intent was to familiarize the patrons with the popular wine, but said now Sake will serve it in small cups to customers of legal age, instead of squirting it randomly around the table.

The imposition of fines is a new punishment allowed by the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, but no firm legal guidelines were available on how to impose a fine, so selectmen allowed Sake to donate $1000 to the town heat fund after several other proposals failed to win a majority vote.  Chairman Kevin Moran opposed the motion. But he told Shi the formal reprimand was now on the books for future violations, and said it was a first time offense. 

"There is not a lot of room for mistakes," he said. "But I hope you are very successful."