Ed. note: The amount of Graham's bounced license check was $2,219, not $134. The amount has been updated in the post; apologies for anybody misled by the incorrect figure.
Christopher Graham says he found himself in pretty dire straits the weekend of Jan. 7. The day before, a police detective had seized the food-serving license of his Lorenez Island Kuisine because the check he used to pay for its renewal had bounced. And as the detective, Robert Mulvey warned him, without the license, he had to shut immediately.
With no money to pay for the license, Graham told the Boston Licensing Board today, he panicked and held an illegal after-hours party that began early on Jan. 8 and ended when police, responding to the latest noise complaint about the 657 Washington St. restaurant, arrived around 2:55 a.m. and shut him down.
Graham raised enough money to pay for his license - more than $2,000 - but the move may well backfire on him: The licensing board votes Thursday whether to strip him of his license altogether or suspend it for a period of time. This is at least the second time Graham has bounced a check to the board.
"I took bad advice," Graham said, pleading for mercy. Graham said if the board shuts him down, the move will throw restaurant employees out of work, end plans for a Codman Square redevelopment project he is involved in, deprive the neighborhood of a meeting spot and cost his mother her life savings and retirement money - which she has been plowing into the restaurant to help keep it afloat.
Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer, however, told Graham she was finding it hard to deal with the fact he not only violated board regulations and disregarded an order from a police detective, he broke the law by serving food without a license and letting people drink well after the time they would have had to leave if the restaurant were legally open.
"You have to abide by the rules of this board and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," she told him. "When a police officer tells you you need to be closed, you need to be closed."
Board members Suzanne Ianella and Milton Wright held their own counsel.
Graham said he didn't intend to open that night. But somebody - he didn't say who - made the suggestion to him as the restaurant hosted a private birthday party that afternoon for a four-year-old girl. As that party wound down, he decided to stay open, this time with a cash bar. He disputed a police report that he only opened the restaurant up at 1 a.m. for the after-hours party, but did not dispute being shut down by a phalanx of C-6 officers shortly before 3 a.m.
Mulvey said that in addition to the unlicensed hours, some 125 people were inside - its license only allows for a maximum of 34. The restaurant also had a DJ working in the basement even though its entertainment license doesn't allow for one.
Ernest Bennett, an aide to City Councilor Charles Yancey, also pleaded with the board to be lenient. Although Graham did a "terrible" thing, he has done a lot of good for the community, and "we would just hate to lose another small business in our community," he said. "Please don't take this business away from the community."
Elma Thompson, a member of the Community Improvement Association, said nearby residents have grown weary of after-hours events at the restaurant, some of which she said don't end until 6 a.m. She was backed up by a strong showing from Boston Police District C-11 - four officers attended the hearing, unusual for a hearing that only involves issues related to a food-serving license.
