Three bars, six weeks, no drinks—Cobblestone Ale House, McCue’s Billards & Sports Lounge and Penuche’s Ale House faced this scenario when they received violations from the N.H. Liquor Commission.
Penuche’s and Cobblestone Ale House were both briefly closed in January. They are two of three Keene bars that were shut down by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission.
The third bar, McCue’s, was shut down in December for five days.
“This certainly is an anomaly,” said Deputy Director of the Liquor Commission Division of Enforcement, Scott Dunn, about the three bars all having to shut down in a six-week period. “This doesn’t happen very often,” Dunn said.
The bars all violated rules of the Liquor Commission during a multi-month time period and lost their liquor licenses for a few days as part of their penalties.
According to Liquor Commission meeting minutes, Penuche’s was officially cited for four violations, Cobblestone for two and McCue’s for one violation.
The bars may have received more violations, but the violations can be consolidated in the process of determining penalties.
At least one violation given to each bar was for serving customers that were “visibly intoxicated,” otherwise known as over-serving.
These are the violations that landed all the bars in hot water, and led to their brief closure.
“Certain offenses in title thirteen, they require a hearing,” Dunn said.
The two most serious violations are serving to underage customers, and over-serving.
Penuche’s owner Todd Tousley said his bar has been closed less than five times over the past 24 years.
Tousley said the closure of three bars within a six week period is unprecedented. “McCue’s, Cobblestone and Penuche’s all (shut down) within a month. I’ve never seen that happen ever in my [last] twenty-four years,” he said.
According to Tousley, the multiple citations that landed the bars in trouble with the Liquor Commission may have been related to the work of a new Liquor Commission field investigator named Hawley Rae.
Rae was hired in 2012.
“They have this new field investigator..It’s a younger woman and she’s got a real highly aggressive attitude, let’s put it that way,” Tousley said, “I don’t know if it’s a new direction for them or if you can blame it all on this one new girl.”
One night, according to Tousley, Rae waited outside Penuche’s by a window after last call at 1 a.m. and entered at 1:34 a.m. to cite the bar for not cleaning up all its alcohol bottles by 1:30 a.m.
“I’ve never gotten more than one [violation] at a time in twenty-three years,” Tousley continued, “I got seven in six months.”
According to Dunn, Rae dealt out two over-serving violations to Penuche’s, one to Cobblestone Ale House and one to McCue’s.
Other violations have real consequences, but the over-serving violations carry the most weight and are what forced the bars to shut down for a few days.
While Dunn called the closure of three bars in six weeks an “anomaly,” he did add it had nothing to do with Rae, or her alleged tenacity.
“It just happens to be that there were some issues during this period,” he said, “She is doing her job.”
The debate about a Liquor Commission field investigator’s potential aggression in citing bars might lead to a clearer debate about the nature of the process of determining if a customer has been over-served.
“It’s somebody’s opinion and it’s very difficult to defend,” McCue’s owner Tom Nephew said, whose bar was cited for over-serving a customer who he claims was only served two drinks.
Nephew added, “If a Liquor Commissioner or investigator comes in and feels that somebody is intoxicated, you face a fine and a possible closing.”
While Dunn admitted the process of determining if a customer had been over served was “kind of fluid,” he said the commission had adequately thorough protocol.
“There are a number of different factors. Obviously we have to ensure that that person had their last drink at that location,” Dunn said.
A few of the many signs investigators are trained to look for, according to Dunn, are slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, loss of inhibitions, ptosis of the eyelids, difficulty with divided attention and an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from the breath.
Bar owners also have the right to appeal any violation, including over-serving violations.
But according to Tousley, the appeals process is always difficult.
“You can appeal it and you can go to a hearing,” he said.
Tousley continued and said he has experienced hearings in the past and found them to be less-than effective.
Tousley explained that a bar’s best option when faced with a hearing is to choose to shut its doors for some time period.
Tousley explained, “I’ve gone to hearings before and it is all a joke, so you just shut down.”
When asked how frequently bars win their appeals, Dunn said it may vary.
“It’s back and forth, it depends on the case. If the case isn’t solid, then you don’t always win,” Dunn said.
According to Nephew, what is most important for customers to understand is that if they are ever asked to leave, it is never anything personal.
“When there is somebody in my establishment and I tell them it’s time to leave, it’s not because I don’t like them… it’s because I think you’ve had enough for tonight,” Nephew said. He added, “I’m not picking on them, I’m just trying to help my business.