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Chinatown bubble-tea place gets smacked with license suspension for boozy after-hours party

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered Chatime, 33 Harrison Ave., to shut for three days as penance for letting employees take over the place after closing on May 19 for an alcohol-enhanced farewell party for some workers going back to China.

At a hearing earlier this week, a police detective testified that, on entering the place around 12:10 a.m., - more than an hour after its allowed closing time - he spotted several people eating at a table that also had a bottle of Korean rice wine and an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniels. Chatime does not have a liquor license.

An employee assigned to cleaning up the place after the 11 p.m. closing said the partiers actually annoyed him and he had wished they left, but acknowledged he did nothing to make them leave.

A Chatime manager apologized and said workers had been read the riot act. Chatime attorney Dennis Quilty suggested it was just an unfortunate cultural difference between the Chinese workers and our sterner ways with alcohol.

Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer, however, tore into the place. She noted the tea place had only opened in November. "This is not the right way to start a business, it really isn't," she told the manager and Quilty.

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Comments

Maybe if the city wasn't so anal people wouldn't have to drink beer our of F'n tea kettles at 2:30 am.

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Cold Tea is part of one of the best stories from my alcoholic years (1984-1994). I was w friends in Chinatown whispering "Cold Tea" to the waiter repeatedly. I had gotten it there many times before, why wouldn't he bring me Cold Tea?
Because it was only 10pm, Boozie! 20 years hence, I can laugh at those times.

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Any time Dennis Quilty is involved, you know it's a bad situation.

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what a prude city - sitting around inside a business causing no harm? throw the book at them!

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Yah, and the minute that one of those people leaves the restaurant and causes a problem, the victims sue the city for not enforcing its laws....

Close and lock the doors before your party starts, and you've got no problem.

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Why can't employees drink alcohol in the business (if the owner oks it)? We have wine at parties at work and we don't have a liquor license. Lots of business execs have a bottle of nice wine or liquor in their office for celebrations or long days and share with their employees.

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The issue is that the doors were still wide open and it still looked open - which is why this detective walked right in.

AFAIK having a party like this after hours would be fine if the place was clearly closed and locked up.

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So long as any customer was turned away who cares if the doors are locked and the lights out or if the place looks open. Did the police see any non-employees dining?

This is a ridiculous ruling. The police don't shut down white collar offices for sharing a few drinks with co-workers irrespective of the status of the front door or even if any customers are around. They don't ask the building custodian if they'd prefer the team from internal sales leave so they can finish vacuuming.

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But they aren't Asian and in the path of cops with a quota and nothing to do.

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I admit that many of the ABC enforcement can be a little too much, but drinking in bars after hours is something that is regulated nationwide in cities. If a bar closes at 2 am, but you let some people stay later in a back room and drink, there are some serious liability issues at stake. Where do you draw the line? Workers? Workers friends? Workers that aren't working that night?

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… the globs of tapioca reportedly pose a choking hazard, and no one knows for sure what's in it.

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And to counter the Taiwanese counter in that article:
http://www.lipstiq.com/health-and-wellness/warning-bubble-tea-pearls-can...

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Now that Walsh will have control of the BLB, time for crooked appointment of Furrer. She was never qualified for this position and continues to waste our tax dollars. And how about hiring a relative who wasn't qualified to be hired during a staff members maternity leave...

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So basically, people from communist China were surprised our laws are even more restrictive than their homeland's. Welcome to Boston!

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This article gives me another look about Chinatown!
I will read more every day to improve my knowledge!
Thank you!

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