• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds

 

Beer Board revokes Lincoln’s beer permit

Posted at 7:27 pm August 28, 2014
By John Huotari 2 Comments

Lincoln's Sports Grille

Lincoln’s Sports Grille on South Illinois Avenue is pictured above. (File photo)

Note: This story was last updated at 9:30 a.m. August 29.

The Oak Ridge Beer Permit Board has revoked the beer permit of Lincoln’s Sports Grille.

The revocation was approved in a 4-2 vote during a special meeting on Thursday, the fifth show cause hearing for Lincoln’s.

It wasn’t immediately clear what effect the revocation, which took effect immediately, would have.

But during the hearing, a Lincoln’s consultant testified that a beer permit suspension coupled with a possible temporary state suspension of the restaurant’s liquor license for its second sale of beer to a minor could effectively shut down the business.

“The economic impact would be great,” consultant Roy McKinnon said. “It would finish Lincoln’s.”

Beer Board Chair Randy Tedford, who made the motion to revoke the permit, said he is not aware of any business that has survived five show cause hearings.

“I really hate having to do that,” Tedford said after the hearing. “It hurts that business. It could close that business. But there comes a time.”

Tedford told Lincoln’s representatives that they have to surrender their beer permit, and it will be revoked for one year. After that, someone else not currently associated with the business, which can still serve food and liquor, can apply for the beer permit.

“You cannot sell beer from this moment on,” said Tedford, who said he wanted to stress the “paramount safety of the public.”

Those who voted for the revocation included Tedford and Beer Board members Theresa Scott, Debra Solmonson, and Wendy Wiliams. Voting against it were board secretary Barton Bailey and Darren Osborne.

Board member Colin Colverson was absent.

Lincolns and Moose Lodge at Show Cause Hearing

Representatives of Lincoln’s Sports Grille and Oak Ridge Moose Lodge #1316 are pictured above during a show cause hearing on Thursday. From left are Lincoln’s consultant Roy McKinnon and manager Victoria Renee Ballard, and Moose Lodge administrator Carl Smith and member Randy Wishinsky.

Thursday’s show cause hearing was called after Lincoln’s sold a 16-ounce Bud Light beer to a 19-year-old on June 9 during a compliance check conducted by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Lincoln’s was one of a half-dozen businesses or organizations cited by the state in June, when the TABC checked about 30 establishments in Oak Ridge.

During a show cause hearing, the Beer Permit Board can revoke or suspend a permit, or levy fines in lieu of a suspension. Among other things, the hearings have been called after state compliance checks and after reports of fights or disturbances.

The alleged TABC violation at Lincoln’s on June 9 occurred the same day the Beer Board agreed to suspend Lincoln’s beer permit for two weeks after an earlier show cause hearing. And that timing seemed to frustrate Beer Board members.

“This offense was cited just a few hours after this board handed down a suspension to begin that night at midnight,” Tedford said. “I get the impression that: Is anyone listening?”

“The general public is fed up,” Scott said. “Lincoln’s has been called up here five times in 16 months,” twice for underage sales, she said.

“This is getting crazy,” Scott said. “It’s against the law to serve a minor.”

McKinnon, who declined to comment after the board’s revocation, cited changes made at Lincoln’s. Among them: The restaurant and bar no longer has bands, the patio has been secured, and the business has become more corporate.

But his arguments didn’t seem to convince Beer Board members.

“It would seem to me that all the efforts over the past 1.5 years have not had an effect,” Williams said.

Oak Ridge Beer Board

Oak Ridge Beer Permit Board members from right are Darren Osborne, Theresa Scott, Secretary Barton Bailey, Chair Randy Tedford, and members Wendy Williams and Debra Solmonson. Board member Colin Colverson was absent.

McKinnon said there is a misperception that Lincoln’s has had a flippant attitude with regard to alcohol. But he said the server who sold the beer in June was suspended immediately for 96 hours and quit about a week later. He said she checked the state informant’s identification but made an error.

“To suggest that we’re flippant or don’t care…I’m sitting before you at 6 o’clock at night to let you know we care,” McKinnon said. “There is no one in this case who believes that what has taken place was acceptable.”

Before revoking the beer permit, Beer Board members voted unanimously on a voice vote that Lincoln’s had not shown that action should not be taken against its permit.

Bailey, who voted against the revocation, said he would have preferred to have taken action against Lincoln’s after the state meted out its punishment for the June beer sale to a minor.

Also during Thursday’s hearing, the Beer Board voted 5-1 to take no action against Oak Ridge Moose Lodge #1316, which sold alcohol, a mixed drink vodka cranberry, to a 19-year-old on June 26 after checking ID. It was the second violation at Moose Lodge for a sale to a minor during a TABC compliance check, and the second show cause hearing for the Moose Lodge.

Moose Lodge management and members said they also have made changes in the past year-and-a-half. Among them: Those who are not members can no longer enter.

“Whatever happened this last time is not going to happen again,” Moose Lodge member Randy Wishinsky said. “No one is going to get in there without a card.”

Moose Lodge Administrator Carl Smith said the bartender in that case was suspended for two weeks and put on 90 days probation.

“A mistake happened,” Smith said. “There’s no denying it.”

Osborne cast the only “no” vote against the motion to take no action against Moose Lodge.

“We’ll give you a second chance, but we will ‘hold your feet to the fire,’” Tedford told Moose Lodge members.

The Beer Board has also scheduled show cause hearings, or plans to have them, for six other businesses. Three of those businesses—Aubrey’s, Back 2 Brewski’s, and Ian’s—have a 6 p.m. hearing on Sept. 16. Hearings for three more businesses—New China Palace, Outback Steakhouse, and Riverside Grille—have not been set but they could be scheduled in October, Tedford said.

While the state’s action against Lincoln’s for the June beer sale is still pending, Moose Lodge paid a $2,000 civil penalty for its violation and agreed to a 15-day suspension of a liquor-by-the-drink license. That suspension was in effect from July 13-27.

See this earlier story for more information.

Filed Under: Business, Business, Government, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: alcohol, Barton Bailey, beer board, beer permit, Beer Permit Board, Carl Smith, civil penalty, Colin Colverson, compliance check, Darren Osborne, Debra Solmonson, Lincoln's Sports Grille, Lincoln’s, Moose Lodge, Oak Ridge Beer Permit Board, Oak Ridge Moose Lodge #1316, Randy Tedford, Randy Wishinsky, revocation, Roy McKinnon, show cause hearing, TABC, Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Theresa Scott, Victoria Renee Ballard, Wendy Williams

Advertisements

 


Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Some of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require significant time to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

Comments

  1. Walter K Hyatt says

    September 2, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    I really hate to see Lincoln’s shut down, and I wonder if some of the more corporate establishments would get hammered like Lincoln’s did. Selling to a minor is a serious problem, but it is a problem everywhere, and there are false IDs and other ways that minors get away with it. I too wonder if Lincoln’s was set up since it appears that Oak Ridge does not want that type of business. Keep in mind, people lost jobs over this and given the severity of the penalty, it effectively killed the business for good.

    Reply
    • Philip W Nipper says

      September 3, 2014 at 4:02 pm

      Yes, they were set up. Set up by their own inability to make ID verification a priority with their servers and managers. The article does not state nor suggest that a false or altered ID was used to obtain alcohol. Rather the 19 year old used his/her real ID that had his/her real birth date on it making it clear to the server the customer’s age. That is as long as the server can perform simple math and as long as management provides proper training to ensure what the exact year / month / day would constitute the “start date” or legal date for that particular day for their customers. A “you must be born after this date” sign or card for the servers to have with them is what I have seen utilized. But again, based on Lincoln’s history, these practices did not seem to be a priority. That is why they are where they are and not because as you state “Oak Ridge does not want that type of business”.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Business News

Speakers mostly support TRISO-X fuel facility at meeting

A small group of residents who spoke at a public meeting on Wednesday were mostly supportive of a proposed nuclear fuel facility in west Oak Ridge. None of the seven local speakers opposed the project, but they had some … [Read More...]

Residents discuss Dollar General in Marlow

A handful of Anderson County residents have expressed mixed opinions in government meetings about a reported proposal to build a Dollar General store next to Oliver Springs Highway in Marlow, but the Anderson County … [Read More...]

NRC accepting comments on environmental review for nuclear fuel facility

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have a public meeting in Oak Ridge next week to accept public comments about the environmental review for a proposed nuclear fuel facility at Horizon Center. It would be the … [Read More...]

Planning Commission approves Weigel’s site plan

The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission approved a site plan Thursday evening for a new Weigel's at South Illinois Avenue and Union Valley Road. The plan for the 6,600-square foot store on an undeveloped 3.6-acre … [Read More...]

Railroad could jeopardize airport

Railroad tracks at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site, have emerged as a potential "deal-killer" for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport. On Tuesday, Oak Ridge city leaders said a new company in west Oak Ridge might … [Read More...]

More Business

More Government News

Residents discuss Dollar General in Marlow

A handful of Anderson County residents have expressed mixed opinions in government meetings about a reported proposal to build a Dollar General store next to Oliver Springs Highway in Marlow, but the Anderson County … [Read More...]

Read city manager’s retirement letter

This is a copy of the January 17 retirement letter from Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson to the seven Oak Ridge City Council members. Since August of 2010, I have been proud to serve the City of Oak Ridge as its … [Read More...]

Oak Ridge Public Library

Library restrooms will be renovated

The restrooms at the Oak Ridge Public Library will be renovated starting February 1. The renovations are expected to be completed by June 1. The renovations will result in increased accessibility under Americans … [Read More...]

Breakfast with Legislators resumes Monday

Breakfast with the Legislators begins this year on Monday. The monthly breakfasts are scheduled each year while the Tennessee General Assembly is in session. They are hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, … [Read More...]

Former AC Commissioner Hitchcock dies

Note: This story was updated at 11:30 a.m. Harry "Whitey" Hitchcock, who represented part of Oak Ridge in three terms on Anderson County Commission, died January 10. A former teacher, he was 76. Hitchcock served on … [Read More...]

More Government

Recent Posts

  • Speakers mostly support TRISO-X fuel facility at meeting
  • UPF construction could cost more, take longer
  • Y-12 celebrates new fire station, emergency operations center
  • One person seriously injured in Wednesday crash
  • Oak Ridge EM prepared for cold weather to prevent failures
  • Covenant Health donating land for Roane State health science center
  • School board approves aviation career path
  • Wildcats name new football coach
  • Free dental, vision, medical services in February
  • Junior Playhouse performs ‘Gingerbread: Hansel & Gretel’ in February

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2023 Oak Ridge Today