SLA: Stop with the bogus explanations

Authority suspicious of various reasoning given by penalized businesses

The State Liquor Authority has a message for businesses facing penalties from the agency and especially for their lawyers: Quit it with the B.S.

The head of the SLA and its top attorney said in a meeting Wednesday that they are fed up with implausible explanations offered by establishments trying to make plea deals to satisfy charges of violating SLA regulations.

During a meeting of the SLA board, its general counsel, Gary Meyerhoff, scoffed at a claim submitted by a Greek restaurant in Manhattan that had agreed to plead guilty to serving customers in its dining room on Dec. 30 despite the ongoing ban on indoor dining in New York City. The restaurant’s liquor license was suspended after SLA agents filed a report about what they observed. The plea for a $5,000 fine being considered Wednesday would reinstate the license.

The restaurant, Eleni’s Divine Greek Cuisine, located near Gramercy Park, has an expanse of French doors that open to the Third Avenue sidewalk; online photos show tables in the doorways in addition to those in a larger sidewalk seating area. In a plea letter submitted by the restaurant’s attorney, Eleni’s said it normally has the French doors open but closed them on Dec. 30 because of unusually chilly temperatures, according to an account Meyerhoff provided during a livestream of the meeting.

The assertion drew disbelief and a chuckle from Meyerhoff, who joined the SLA about a year ago after retiring from a highprofile litigation career that included representing former TV anchor Dan Rather in a lawsuit against CBS.

“The allegation made ... is that this location just happened to have its … (doors) closed on this night only,” Meyerhoff said.

He said, “(It’s) a hardly credible representation, that it just happened to be cold on that night … even through the weather had been essentially the same for 10, 15, 20 days in a row,” adding that the restaurant’s excuse was “outrageous.”

SLA Chairman Vincent G. Bradley concurred, saying that such credulity-straining claims at times disincline him to accept pleas. He said, “It really does not get your client anywhere to make up … bogus explanations for what happened to be going on the moment that our investigator happened to walk in there. … It gets frustrating to read.”

Bradley continued, “If you’re going to plea to something, just plea.”

The board accepted the plea and fined Eleni’s $5,000.

In Capital Region news from the meeting, a Troy gas station and convenience store was fined $15,000 after pleading guilty to its fourth sale of alcohol to a minor in less than five years, according to agency records. Lucky Quick Mart, at 558 Hoosick St., agreed to the penalty resulting from a State Police sting, an agency spokesman said. Records indicate that the business paid a $10,000 fine for the same charge last year and has two previous sale-to-minor offenses, the first in 2016.

Also, two Schenectady restaurants had SLA applications denied by the board.

The Union Inn, which was shuttered in 2014 after flood damage and revived by a new owner in 2018, was seeking to be allowed to stay open until 3 a.m. and to have live music. (The new hours would not take effect until after New York’s temporary, pandemic-related 10 p.m. statewide closing time for alco

hol service is rescinded.)

The board turned down the request from the bar, located at 517 Union St. Board members were told by SLA staff that the business has not yet paid a $25,000 fine related to a guilty plea last year to numerous violations from 2019, including staying open past the hours allowed on its current liquor license — midnight Sunday to Thursday, and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

The board also denied an application for a full liquor license for Artis Southern Cuisine & Steakhouse, at 1363 Lower

Broadway. It has been operating with a temporary license since opening last year. The board said it based its rejection in part on a shooting at a previous business at the address, called PJ’S Bar & Grill, of which Artis’ owner was described as having been the manager when the shooting occurred. The rejection of the license application effectively cancels the temporary liquor license, the SLA spokesman said, though Artis would not be precluded from applying again.