AMHERST — A downtown restaurant that had its liquor license suspended for three days earlier this month is facing a series of new alleged violations of state alcohol laws, including serving underage customers and selling alcohol after its 1 a.m. closing time.
Porta, at 51 East Pleasant St., will be the subject of a hearing by the Board of License Commissioners at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Town Room at Town Hall on reports filed by Amherst Police related to observations officers made at the location on April 17, 19 and 20.
Steven McCarthy, the town’s licensing coordinator, said the violations uncovered by police are considered egregious and will be taken seriously by the commission.
He said that the commission could issue a warning or suspend the license, or go so far as to revoke Porta’s license to serve alcohol.
Incident reports written by police officers, including those working plainclothes details, provided to the commission reveal that multiple times underage people had been allowed into Porta without having to show driver’s licenses and were served alcohol, including a 16-year-old high school student.
The narrative from one of these reports from early Sunday morning states, “There was open alcohol everywhere on the bar and no employees working, besides the DJ and the doorman. It appeared that the bar was working as ‘self-service’ to many underage drinkers. There was no food being served, other than one plate of cookies located on the other end of the bar.”
Officers also observed non-employees working behind the bar and serving alcoholic beverages to themselves and others. One of these people told officers that there was “no management on the property tonight so it was a kind of a ‘free for all.’”
In addition, more than 100 people were found inside the establishment and continuing to consume alcohol after 1:30 a.m. on Friday, more than 30 minutes after its closing time.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
