Board puts bars on notice: Offer water pong and they're cruising for a bruising

The Boston Licensing Board today ordered a State Street bar to shut down for three days for an incident in which detectives found an underage woman with a bottle of beer while other patrons were playing a game similar to beer pong, only with water.

The board's decision on the Nov. 19 incident at Goodbar, 181 State St., does not specify how much of the punishment is for the underage drinking and how much for the water pong. However, a three-day suspension is far stiffer than the board usually metes out for an underage drinker. In fact, it's a harsher punishment than Mantra in Downtown Crossing got today for failing to cooperate with a police investigation into a brawl that sent a man to the hospital for two days with a concussion, head wound and broken eye socket. In that case, the board ruled Mantra had to shut for two days.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a bar manager said water pong was just a "silly" diversion for customers that, unlike beer pong, involves no alcohol and no drinking from cups into which ping-pong balls have landed. She compared it to darts, backgammon and foosball, which, also unlike beer pong, are allowed in Boston bars.

But after hearing a police detective say he observed a customer taking swigs from a bottle of beer in his hand whenever his opponent scored, board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer said she didn't see any real difference between chugging down a cup with a ping-pong ball and beer in it and a bottle of beer.

Goodbar can appeal the decision to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.