A fight to save a Baton Rouge bar is underway in downtown courtrooms.
Chelsea’s owner Dave Remmetter is in court with the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control to decide if the ATC’s removal of Chelsea’s liquor license will be upheld.
“I won’t continue business without a liquor license,” Remmetter said, according to a Twitter.com feed, “I Love Chelsea’s,” which is run in conjunction with a Web site of the same name and owned by Remmetter. “I can’t make people eat after 10 p.m., but they have the option.”
According to the Twitter.com page, there is a “good crowd in the courtroom,” and “all seats are taken, 30 [people] standing.”
The ATC originally cited Remmetter for two violations after a Jan. 22 raid at Chelsea’s. The restaurant was charged for operating as a bar with a restaurant license.
ATC Consel submitted the ATC renewal form numbers of food and alcohol sales at Chelsea’s during 2007 and 2008, both of which showed the restaurant had higher alcohol sales than food sales, according to the Twitter.com page.
When asked this morning if he agreed that “primary business is selling food” means selling more food than alcohol, ATC Commissioner Murphy Painter is quoted on the Twitter.com feed, as saying “No. I do not agree.”
Painter then argued, according to the Twitter.com page, that to him “primary business” means more than 50 percent, but such is an interpretation and is not stated anywhere in the law.
Painter charged Remmetter initially with a $2,000 fine and suspended the owner’s liquor license unless the establishment met the state’s conditions to receive a rezoning change.
But Remmetter said he complied with all of Painter’s requests. He said he applied to the state to rezone, paid the $2,000 fine, kept the kitchen open all business hours and made sure the restaurant was in compliance with the city.
Remmetter said he isn’t sure why the ATC pulled his license last week. He is hopeful more supporters will be present at next week’s hearing, and his Web site, Ilovechelseas.com, encourages Baton Rouge residents to be present at the hearing.
——Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]