Council wants 7 liquor permits denied
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 02:52 AM By Doug Caruso and Jim Woods
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Columbus City Council members objected last night to the renewal of liquor licenses for seven carryout businesses and bars, including a strip club where police officers say they were propositioned by dancers and a bar where officers observed customers having sex.Five of the seven businesses in the council's cross hairs are carryouts with a history of underage sales and police runs.
A hearing officer will take the council's objections and make a recommendation to the state liquor-control superintendent. Whatever the superintendent decides about the licenses can be appealed to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission.
Meanwhile, the permit holders can continue to operate.
One of the bars in question is Rumors, a strip club on the Hilltop. Columbus police officers filed prostitution charges against three dancers there, said Brandon E. Shroy, an assistant city attorney. "Vice officers were solicited on multiple occasions by strippers at the bar," he said.
Police charged a patron with indecent exposure at another club, Exile Bar, and said they witnessed customers having sex in front of other patrons and staff members, Shroy said. The other five businesses include a Sunoco and Ohio Oil on the South Side, Pay Less Auto Service on the North Side, a former Marathon station on the Near East Side, and the Save Way Mart in Italian Village. Bar and carryout permit holders contacted yesterday said they were surprised by the city's proposed action.
Patrick Barney, manager at the Exile Bar, said he was among those unaware of making the City Council's hit list.
Exile Bar, 893 N. 4th St., has had the same ownership for three years and has been a gay bar in the Italian Village neighborhood for 20 years, Barney said.
"Nobody has ever told me anything," said Sam Hamad, who has owned the Save Way Mart, 1022 Summit St., since 2006.
Judges and police officers are among the regular customers, Hamad said.
If the city had a problem, he said, it should have at least sent him a letter.
Manjit Kaur recently took over ownership of what had been a Marathon station carryout at 1020 E. Broad St. He expressed surprise at the city's action.
Kaur said he and his family work 12 hours and longer each day to keep their business going.
Business is transacted from behind a security window, he said.
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