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Liquor license change unlikely |
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Friday, 20 March 2009 |
By CARL CRITZ
NARRAGANSETT - Thomas Paolantonio’s Drunken Clam on Ocean Road will have to wait three more weeks to learn the fate of its liquor license as neighborhood opposition forced the issue to an additional hearing at Monday’s Town Council meeting.
Attorney Steven Votta, representing Thomas Paolantonio, owner of The Drunken Clam, asked the council to consider amending several restrictions to the class BV liquor license at his establishment on 1200 Ocean Road.
Currently the Drunken Clam’s kitchen must close for service by 10 p.m. and liquor must be served with food. The other principal issue Votta discussed was the prohibition of seating round the already installed bar.
Additionally, its deck may not exceed 24 guests and food-and-beverage service must cease at dusk. No persons are to be allowed on the deck after 9 p.m. The establishment is also not allowed to have live entertainment, including a disk jockey.
Paolantonio said the restrictions placed on the establishment, particularly the ban on a sit-down bar area, creates an undue hardship for his business which is in direct competition with other nearby restaurants, including Spain, The Bon Vue Inn, and Charlie O’s.
He also said he does not feel he is being discriminated against, but his business is failing and town building officials and police are the messengers. “My client has done everything he can to follow the restrictions,” Votta said. “With four other restaurants within 100 yards without these restrictions, he asks the council to level the playing field.”
Votta asked that all six restrictions be amended in some form: that outside dining be allowed until 10 p.m., that the seating capacity of the deck be expanded to 48 persons, that six to eight seats be allowed at the bar, and that the kitchen is allowed to remain open until 11 p.m.
Attorney Matthew Callaghan, representing Ocean Gold Realty, LLC on 1200 Ocean Road, expressed his client’s support and the efforts of the Drunken Clam in getting off their feet. He spoke in favor of amending the license as presented.
Police Chief Little testified that a restaurant-bar posed a significantly reduced threat of public nuisance than that of just a bar.
“The idea of a bar there does create a bone of contention with residents,” Callaghan said, “but we all know the seedy bars have been sanitized in the area in the last 20 years.”
Several other Narragansett residents spoke up in support of Paolantonio’s request, agreeing with his request to even the playing field.
George Tracy, representing several abutters, produced for the council six letters of objection to the amendment of the ordinance, and commented that all but one of his neighbors who abut the Drunken Clam have indicated their objection to bar seating at the establishment.
Town solicitor Mark McSally, in response to a request from the council, informed the audience that according to state law, if more than 50 percent of abutting residents of an establishment object to changes in a liquor license, the motion could not carry. McSally also added that any establishment at 1200 Ocean Road in the last ten years has dealt with opposition from the same group mentioned by Tracy, and the abutters have prevailed in an overwhelming majority of the cases.
Other abutters claimed the advertisements and certified mailings were both received with inadequate time to respond in some cases, and in error because the advertisement only addressed two out of the six issues in question. “If they can’t understand the terms and restrictions put in place they shouldn’t do business there,” said one abutter.
In light of the opposition’s objection, council members moved to continue the public hearing on April 6. The council accepted responsibility for the error in posting only two of the six issues proposed for amendment, and said it would bear the cost of re-mailing notices to neighbors and properly advertising the April hearing.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 03 April 2009 )
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