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Scorpion bowls ordered by BU students prove expensive - for the waterfront restaurant that served them
By adamg on Fri, 05/06/2016 - 4:18pm
The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered a two-day shutdown for Empire, 1 Marina Park Dr., because police found three underage students with scorpion bowls during an inspection on Feb. 21 - almost a year after it got a one-day suspension for a similar offense.
At a hearing Tuesday, a BPD detective said that when he and his partner walked into the restaurant and club around 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 21, he saw three young looking guys at a table, sharing two scorpion bowls with several straws in them.
Two of the three turned out to be 18-year-old BU students with fake out-of-state IDs. The third was also underage - 19 - and also had a fake out-of-state ID.
An Empire manager acknowledged that the waitress who served them did not follow Empire's protocols for young-looking people with out-of-state IDs - to call over a manager for him or her to look at the IDs. She was suspended; the manager on duty was written up, he said.
Because of the incident, Empire bought a $10,000 license scanner that is updated daily, through which all IDss are now run. The manager said that since the incident, and with the scanner in place, Empire has turned away "hundreds of people" - and has getting "particularly scathing reviews" on Yelp because of how strict it now is.
The three underage patrons caught by police now face criminal charges for being minors in possession of alcohol.
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Comments
Yelp?
A review of Empire's page on Yelp shows no scathing reviews about its ID policy...just the standard "didn't like the food" or "slow service" complaints.
I understand
The employee getting suspended for not following protocol and calling over a manager, but how on earth are managers supposed to know whether an out-of-state ID is fake or not. I mean Boston is America's biggest college town (city), hence there are tens of thousands of young looking actual 21-year olds scouring the city and a manager shouldn't have to, let's say, call the police every time there's a younger looking out of state patron drinking at their bar just to verify their actual age.
It's getting tougher
Because the fake licenses are getting better.
That having been said, there are still some techniques, even without the $10,000 scanner, that a manager, if not a server, should know - which is why the waitress was supposed to call over a manager. It's amazing how many kids are tripped up by questions like "what's your Zip code" or even "what's your sign?" Obviously, that won't work with a good fake ID that has the person's actual picture, address and birth date (with the year altered), but some still go for borrowing/stealing a friend/older sibling's ID for the night. Less than top-of-the-line fake IDs will have the laminate crinkle if you bend the card a bit - something that won't happen with a legitimate state ID. I'm sure there are other techniques.
Agreed
Their job is to run a restaurant not investigate out-of-state IDs. The kids using them should be getting the harsh punishment.
I'd suggest you avoid the restaurant business in Massachusetts
Because at least in this state, part of the job of restaurant owners IS to obey the law. Specifically, if they have a liquor license, the law obligates them to do everything they can to keep kids from drinking, to keep from over-serving customers who get into cars and kill people, to do what they can to keep fights from breaking out in their parking lots, to try to keep customers from killing each other with glass mugs, even to keep the sidewalks outside their entrances clear for pedestrians.
When you apply to be a manager of an establishment with a liquor license in Boston, you get asked, at a minimum, three questions: Are you a US citizen? Are you a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? Are you up to date on the laws of the Commonwealth and the rules and regulations of the Boston Licensing Board and the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission?
Don't like it? You probably need to find another business, because you're not going to have your liquor license for very long.
giving the kids criminal records
thats sure to help them. what a waste.
First offense?
If they're particularly remorseful looking and have a decent lawyer, they could get a continued without a finding, after which the record would be sealed, assuming they don't do something stupid in the meantime.
Regardless
That doesn't make it better. Its absurd on its face a kid can get a record for drinking underage so long as they didn't go out and pull actual crimes while doing it.
These are 18 and 19 year olds
These are 18 and 19 year olds. They are not kids. They were not just drinking under age. They willfully tried to circumvent the law by seeking out and buying a fake ID. I'm not saying they that they should get put in jail. But this shouldn't be líke a parking ticket either.
Something to understand here
Most European countries have legal beer and wine when you hit 16, and legal everything at 18. Canadian provinces are all at 18 and 19 years old. This wouldn't even be a crime in most of the world.
You know what countries have drinking ages like the US does? Arab and Muslim countries. That's how far off we are when it comes to prohibitionist thinking.
The law is the law, yes, but when laws are ridiculous and mismatch both the culture and the age of majority, there will be a constant battle with sneaking and hiding and other counterproductive situations. You cannot have uneven definitions of "adult" where you end up with people old enough to join the military, sign up for military conscription, vote, sign their own mortgage or car loan paperwork, and yet infantilize them when it comes to alcohol and cigarettes, and then wonder why that system fails.
Ridiculous
The drinking age should be dropped to 18 again. If you are old enough to die for your country, you should be old enough to order a beer.
I wouldn't go anywhere with a license scanner
It's just more surveillance. And even if the current model from that particular manufacturer doesn't misuse or leak the data, dotcom-style, next year's model will.
Do you pay only with cash?
Otherwise, you do realize that most bars and restaurants now keep records of your credit-card transactions, right? And that many places now have video cameras going - and that those records will be produced on request to police and the licensing board after an incident?
Good thing you wear that tinfoil hat
Stops your brain from leaking out.
When will they close?
Was the suspension served immediately after the Thursday licensing meeting or will they close for two days later?
Sometime later
They have the right to appeal the punishment to the ABCC.