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16-year-old drinking at midnight at a Seaport hotel raises official ire

Boston Licensing Board members reacted with shock on hearing that police on a surprise inspection found a 16-year-old at a table - with five other underage people - drinking alcohol at midnight in a Seaport hotel last November.

The board decides Thursday what punishment, if any, to levy against the Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport - which leases its liquor license to the management group that runs the Coquette restaurant in the hotel lobby.

"That is unbelievable," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said. "This is a real problem ... You cannot tell me someone at 16 years old, [the server] thought they looked like they were 21."

Coquette attorney Dennis Quilty and manager Mark Malatesta acknowledged all six got drinks because the server violated restaurant policy and didn't check their IDs.

"Once they made it to the table, our server just didn't do their job," Malatesta said. "We terminated this individual immediately."

In addition to firing the server, who initially lied about carding the six, all restaurant staffers had to undergo retraining to make sure that they will not server alcohol without checking IDs, Quilty said. "We can assure you this will not happen again," he said.

Malatesta said the restaurant does not require ID checks at the door for people who make dinner reservations, which the six did, but servers are always supposed to check IDs, he said.

BPD Det. Eddie Hernandez said that as he and his partner were talking to the six young women, they told him they had made a reservation at Coquette after learning on social media it was the place to go to get a drink if you were under 21 - and that they tested that out by sending one of their number to the bar to order a drink and when she got one without having to show ID, the entire table summoned the server to order a round.

Hernandez did not specify what drinks the table had ordered.

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Comments

Magoo here! Magoo ‘members when Magoo was existing for less than 21 of Earth’s revolutions around Sol and Magoo would travel to Chinatown and order…Cold Tea….and Magoo would be served a frosty beer. Mentioning Earth causes Magoo to wonder why isn’t humans’ home planet called Water because there is more water than earth on this planet. Magoo.

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Just when we think you have grown tired of this schtick and finally given it up here you are. Time to put this one to rest.

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Mister Magoo mentioned Chinatown without referring to his horribly stereotyped assistant Charlie, so give him some credit.

Also it is relevant because the Cold Tea phenomenon is for real—as of a couple years ago at least. A way to get served beer after hours and for the underaged.

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I thought the "Cold Tea" hadn't been a real thing since the Reagan was in office.

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It was a thing when I was in frad school back in 2000-2002

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get teapots of sake in college and I graduated in '07.

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It was at least there in the late 90’s. You could order beer even after the clubs closed at 2:00.

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Coquette's.

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So ironic that we waste so much energy on this sort of enforcement whereas in many European countries nothing illegal would have happened here, and the sky isn't falling in those countries nor do they have epidemics of drunk driving deaths (because they don't fuck around with slaps on the wrist).

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I am sure that many of these countries have drunk drivers and non-drunk drivers who make Boston drivers seem sane by comparison (having spent time in some of these places). What they don't have is nearly as many teen drivers, nor the same car culture as we have here.

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26 underage kids pounded Budweisers

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in several of their spots (Yvonne's, Ruka, this one) in recent months and spotted bartenders and servers carding folks who look like they might be under 25. They're plenty busy without having to risk a license suspension or loss serving a few minors.

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It wasn't such an aberration for that restaurant, because they only went there and got caught when social media was passing around that restaurant as the place to go get drinks if you're underaged.

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across the group, including at Coquette. I can't speak to how reliable a TikTok video is: if multiple kids were claiming it or it was an anecdote.

COJE just strikes me as above-average on service training, and with a group whose restaurants are famously nightclub-like in vibe (except for the fact that the food is very good, a rarity in my experience in such spaces in Boston), this, along with broader TIPS certification, seems likely to be part of the boot camp drill.

My take is also only anecdotal, of course.

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Oh no, young people drinking!

This is sort of dumb overall. You can send a kid off to kill someone at 18, then can own a gun at what, 12, but don't you dare have some wine, might ruin you.

It is almost as silly as people who carry a gun or run into burning buildings for work think a vaccine is dangerous.

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These kids must have been of means. The average price of a cocktail is $17 there. A Miller High Life is the lowest cost option at $7 (which isn't too bad for a hotel).
As far as the server who enabled this, I wonder what they were thinking? Given the fact they were young, I'll hazard a guess and say that they weren't exactly 'strong' tippers. That should've warranted a little more scrutiny. That person deserved to be let go.
Maybe those kids should've joined that crew in the park a quarter-mile away and pounded some Bud Lights with them.

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Any repercussions for these teens who caused someone to lose their job?

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They face criminal hearings in court for being minors in possession of alcohol.

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That was beyond stupid for the server to serve alcohol to underaged individuals. They deserved to get canned.

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The whole dog and pony show of having a big hearing about this is kind of ridiculous. They fired the server, they did retrainings.

I feel like a first-time offense for these places should be a paper appeal, instead of everybody having to schlep in person to do some hearing with lawyers etc. But then the board couldn't justify their existence and high pay. So.

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Everyone has always known this is the way it goes. If you don't want to go before the board with lawyers, etc., Don't serve a table of obviously underagers. If you dont want to lose your job, do your job and ask for ID.

If you want a consequence free nation, move to Floridastan.

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I'm not saying don't enforce the rules. I'm saying don't spend taxpayer money having a big public hearing about it. Like have an online system that processes first time appeals and save hearings for big issues once a quarter.

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