Downtown restaurant AJ Bombers will now be allowed to host parties for 18-plus attendees after a city committee approved its license at a meeting Wednesday.
Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers, said at the meeting he wanted the 18-plus entertainment license to allow the University of Wisconsin Interfraternity Council to host 12 private parties per month. Other than these events hosted by students, AJ Bombers would continue to be a business that primarily serves food.
Sorge told the committee he wanted to make it clear he was running a restaurant, not a bar.
Sorge’s testimony was in response to Madison Police Department Capt. Carl Gloede, who told the committee MPD recently approached AJ Bombers for hosting a private party without the appropriate entertainment license.
Gloede said the restaurant hosted a DJ for a joint sorority and fraternity party thrown by students associated with the UW Greek system. Police notified the staff that they needed an entertainment license for this particular activity, he said.
Gloede said one condition of granting the entertainment license at the meeting was that the establishment could not turn over control of the venue to the host of the party.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said typically parties can only by hosted by members of the IFC or Panhellenic Association.
The assumption that AJ Bombers would host parties for students would only mean that it would not be able to host such events during breaks during the school year, Gloede said.
The committee also discussed entertainment licensing for downtown Madison as a whole.
Verveer and Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy said the city has been looking to implement a new draft to the entertainment licensing process that would be more restrictive in an effort to decrease underage alcohol drinking in local establishments.
Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said further restricting entertainment venues will have a “chilling effect on entertainment in the city.” He said the committee has been struggling for a long time with the concept of which venues deserve a liquor license and which deserve an entertainment license.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “There are a number of concepts we have not been able to offer in Madison because of the way we license entertainment.”
Verveer said the city could potentially draft a new ordinance to combine the current ordinance, which has been deemed too lenient, with the newer one, which is seen as too restrictive.
Zilavy said the issue of entertainment and liquor licenses can be difficult for policymakers.
“In terms of this type of ordinance, it’s not like one thought covers it all,” she said.
Zilavy said discussing the ordinance would be more productive in the context of a different meeting. In the end, the committee ruled in favor of having a meeting at a later date to further address changing the process for entertainment licensing.