Selectmen Slap Liquor Store with 10-Day Suspension; Two Others on Notice

A liquor store on the Allston border will be dry this Halloween weekend after the business was slapped with a 10-day license suspension for selling to an underage college student.

The store, Mall Discount Liquors on Harvard Street, was one of three business netted in the Brookline Police Department's latest round of liquor stings, which were conducted at all 23 licensed liquor stores in town last month. The two other stores, The Meat House and Village Liquor & Convenience, were each hit with three-day suspensions that are being withheld because the violation was a first offence.

For Mall Discount Liquors, which shares a building with the T.J.Maxx near the Allston border, Tuesday's hearing was the second appearance before the Board of Selectmen this year. The store was hit with a three-day suspension in February for failing a similar sting, but selectmen withheld the suspension because it was a first offense.

"I specifically remember telling him … that he would have to be particulary careful about selling to minors," Selectwoman Nancy Daly told Steve Boris, a Framingham lawyer representing the owner of the store, Francisco Viana.

Selectmen tacked an additional seven days onto the three the store already faces from its last violation. Under the ruling, Mall Discount Liquors will not be able to sell alcohol for 10 consecutive business days starting Oct. 27.

Though the Meat House has escaped a license suspension for now, representatives for the new Coolidge Corner butcher shop were blasted by selectmen for failing a liquor sting less than a month after the business opened.

"You folks were before us very recently and should not have forgotten the lecture that we give," said Chairwoman Betsy DeWitt. "This is a privilege and you need to demonstrate that you deserve this privilege."

Daly added it was a "particularly disturbing" that the Meat House employee who sold beer to the minor—actually a 20-year-old college student working for the Brookline Police Department—was a store manager.

Chris Hogan, the operating partner for the franchise group that owns the butcher shop, said he shared the selectmen's "concern and disappointment" and promised that the store was refocusing on its training and policies around the sale of alcohol.

Selectmen also had choice words for the owner of Village Liquor, which failed the sting even after receiving repeated warnings from police about not adequately training its employees to sell alcohol.

According to a police report, the owners of the store were called into the station last May to deal with a lack of employee training after the store failed three administrative inspections earlier in the year. When the manager was caught in the September sting, he still could not provide the officer with evidence that he was certified to sell alcohol.

Adam Barnosky, a lawyer representing the store, said the owner now requires employees to ask all customers for identification and has purchased a machine that can check for fakes.

"They really are willing to do whatever the board may recommend to make sure this does not happen again," he said.

In all three stores, a 20-year-old college student working with the police department was able to buy beer from an employee without being asked to show an ID card verifying their age. In two of the stores, the managers were not able to provide legally required training and policy documents when asked by the officer conducting the sting.