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Underage BC students once again get Cleveland Circle pizza place in trouble

Boston Police detectives report finding three underage Boston College students - one just 19 - quaffing draft Bud Light at Agoros Bar and Grill, 356 Chestnut Hill Ave., early on July 14.

It's the latest such incident involving the pizza place, which has quickly become the go-to place in Cleveland Circle for beer-mad BC students with fake IDs - or, in some cases, their older sibling's purloined licenses.

This time, though co-owner Dimitrios Liakos told the Boston Licensing Board this morning, he's going to crack down on the young 'uns but good. He said he's stopped hiring BC seniors as doormen and has instead hired the same security company the nearby Cityside uses to separate the legal wheat from the underage chaff. He's also met with BC's director of community affairs to solicit the college's help in making Agoros as off limits to would be underage drinkers as Cityside - and even Mary Ann's.

Liakos added he's looking at also hiring BPD details on weekend nights, at least as school re-opens for the fall, "to try to intimidate or scare" the younger crowd from trying to order a beer.

Liakos said that he or one of his partners will try to work the door most nights to add a further layer of security - in part by asking young-looking people with out-of-state IDs questions that can trip them up, such as their favorite restaurant in their supposed home towns or even their horoscope sign. Oftentimes, "they start freaking out," and admit their attempted duplicity, he said.

Board Chairwoman Christine Pulgini said Liakos better make sure the measures work. "Your livelihood is at stake," she told him.

In May, the board ordered the place shut for seven days because of incidents in April and February in which police found drinkers under 21 inside. This is on top of a one-day suspension for a January incident. Agoros has been open less than a year.

Pulgini asked Liakos if he had talked to Mary Ann's owner to see how she's cracked down on underage drinking in the two years since the board traveled all the way to Cleveland Circle to hear pent-up complaints from fed-up Cleveland Circle residents.

Liakos said he had, but he wasn't sure that Mary Ann's system, which he didn't detail, "works as well as it should."

"I don't think you should be throwing stones," Pulgini replied.

Liakos's attorney, Curt Bletzer, told the board that Liakos and partners are still trying to get Agoros to its original proposed state as a restaurant, rather than a bar. The partners signed a 20-year-lease for the space where Roggie's used to be. He noted that Liakos and his brother run a family-owned restaurant in Somerset that has been open since the 1980s.

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Comments

He was hiring BC seniors to work the door, and he's shocked, shocked(!) to find underage drinkers?

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  • Students who somehow got drinks in the establishment = apparently liars
  • Students who let in underage = were they fooled by false ID, or was it their friends, or just trying to be nice and possibly get lucky with other students, while shirking their official duty
  • Proprietor hiring college students to supposedly prevent underage customers from entering = suspicious
  • Boston officials = we've seen lots of corruption and pettiness over the years from various parts of local government, so some sound bites can come across as creepy, but there's a real problem in this case for which creepy sound bite could be appropriate
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My skin hasn't crawled like this since I read the Freeh Report.

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You can get married, join the army, buy a house, get a tattoo, vote for president, star in a porn movie at 18, but can't buy a frigging beer.

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You also can't purchase cigarettes in much of Massachusetts. You can't rent a car either. You can't go on a cruise liner without someone 21+. You can't be governor of over 40 states, nor serve in the state legislatures of 30+ states. You can't be President, Vice President, Senator, or US Representative of the United States. You can't purchase a handgun or ammunition for a handgun from a licensed dealer anywhere in America until you're 21, and in several states (including MA) you must be 21 to possess a handgun as well. Want to get married in Nebraska? Be 19. Mississippi? 21.

So look, the complaint about the age requirement for alcohol consumption is tired. There is no single magic age by which our society deems a person qualified to make all adult-like decisions. That statement would be every bit as true if we reduced the age to buy alcohol to 18.

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Mississippi's marriage age statutes are listed in the table below. Minors under minimum age may obtain license with parental consent and approval of court. Minor females age 15 yrs. and older and males 17 yrs. and older may marry without parental consent.

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Mississippi Code 93-1-5

1) Every male who is at least seventeen (17) years old and every female who is at least fifteen (15) years old shall be capable in law of contracting marriage. However, males and females under the age twenty-one (21) years must furnish the circuit clerk satisfactory evidence of consent to the marriage by the parents or guardians of the parties.

Under 21? You need permission of parents/guardians (or a judge).

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If the courts will treat you as an adult, you can join the military and see combat, get married, have kids, it is incredibly puritanical and obnoxious you are legally denied the right to buy and drink any alcohol or buy and use tobacco products.

Young ADULTS need to organize, protest, lobby politicians.

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Bud Light should not qualify as beer.

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What idiot springs for a fake ID and then buys pisswater?

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The scion of idiots who didn't prepare him for a lifetime of correct enjoyment of alcohol.

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What idiot springs for a fake ID and then buys pisswater?

I'd say almost all of them

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"Liakos said that he or one of his partners will try to work the door most nights to add a further layer of security"

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Dammit, I said I'd go to a hearing. I stuck around Saratoga an extra day and missed a good one, apparently.

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Tuesday is a dark day. Unless you were staying for steeplechase on Wednesday, the Licensing Board hearing is more entertaining.

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And I wanted to hit Broadway/Caroline one more time.

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...."the legal wheat from the underage chaff". One of the best things I've read in a long time.

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