In its first formal crackdown on restaurants turning into taverns, the city of Madison is considering suspending or revoking the liquor license from Quinton?s Bar and Deli.
The Alcohol License Review Committee is in the process of scheduling a hearing for the bar and restaurant, located at 319 W. Gorham St., which was licensed in 2005 as a restaurant with a liquor license.
As a restaurant, the establishment is required to sell more than 50 percent food, verifying its primary operation as a restaurant rather than a tavern.
Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc. filed a complaint with the city clerk in late 2006 saying Quinton?s operates mainly as a bar, and six months later the city conducted its first audit of the establishment.
Finding Quinton?s records did not differentiate between alcohol and all other sales, the audit was inconclusive. Quinton?s alcohol license was renewed last summer with a warning from the ALRC to become a bona fide restaurant.
?Having the liquor license is a privilege,? said Katherine Plominski, the city?s alcohol policy coordinator. ?When it is granted and there are conditions on it and you don?t follow those conditions, that is when the ALRC steps in like they are doing with Quinton?s.?
In a second audit, the city comptroller found alcohol sales over the past six months represented 50.82 percent of sales, said Stephanie Rearick, ALRC chairwoman, which defines Quinton?s as a tavern.
?I very much realize that Quinton?s is very much a student hangout, so the best that can be said for Quinton?s is that they are a victim of their own success in that they are such a popular night spot,? said City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4.
At the ALRC meeting Wednesday night, Assistant City Attorney Steven Brist said the city attorney?s office issued a summons to have a formal revocation meeting with Quinton?s owners. He said he does not have a definitive timeline yet for when the hearing will take place or when they will reach a final decision about the restaurant?s fate.
?It is a very odd case,? Verveer said, adding most other cases the city has stepped in on involve taverns that receive frequent police calls where fights break out or where the management seems unruly.
Ald. Michael Schumacher, District 18, sits on the ALRC and said restaurants turning into bars after hours is a dangerous practice because restaurants do not have the same security protocol as bars.
He notes the shift taking place with ?how the body deals with establishments who possibly create unacceptable alcohol-related behavior in public.?
Schumacher said the ALRC does not want to take the fun away from the downtown area; it just wants to reduce alcohol behavior issues.
At Wednesday?s meeting, the ALRC also approved a beer license for D.P. Dough, a new calzone restaurant at 244 W. Gilman St. The committee also delayed a request from Samba, a restaurant just a door down from D.P. Dough, to create an outdoor seating area that could serve alcohol.
