to tighten B.Y.O.B. policy
By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — Alcohol is being consumed in greater amounts in borough restaurants and Police Chief Michael Beierschmitt is worried this will have a negative effect on the downtown area.
Beierschmitt told Borough Council members at a workshop meeting on Oct. 15 that he has observed a marked increase in alcohol consumption in downtown restaurants over the last few weeks. He noted that the Golden Star restaurant, Main Street, and the Good Fortune Chinese restaurant, South Street, as particular offenders in this matter.
"People have been observed inebriated in the restaurants as well as leaving the restaurants," the chief said. "Empty cases of beer and liquor are being found outside in the vicinity of these businesses."
Beierschmitt told council members he "feared that this might eventually cause a large problem in the downtown area."
According to the chief, these restaurants do not hold a liquor license but do allow patrons to bring in their own liquor, known as B.Y.O.B.
Other restaurants have this same B.Y.O.B. policy and are maintaining it responsibly, according to Beierschmitt, who cited La Cipollina, El Meson and Basile’s as particularly responsible in their management of the alcohol consumption of their patrons.
Borough Attorney Kerry Higgins told council members the statute currently permits a municipality to prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages on premises where food or liquid refreshments are sold and served to the general public. She said it appeared as though people were entering the smaller Chinese restaurants carrying cases of beer and conducting their own "little parties."
Beierschmitt told council members he wasn’t advocating an overall prohibition, but recommended that a restaurant must be of a certain size for the B.Y.O.B. policy to be permitted.
Higgins said an investigation would be done to see if regulating the B.Y.O.B. policy based on the number of tables in an establishment or possibly the square footage of the building were viable options.
Beierschmitt said that over the years restaurant owners with liquor licenses have had the responsibility to monitor their patrons’ alcohol consumption.
"There are also bartenders and waiters and waitresses to help monitor the consumption. They watch and they know enough not to serve someone who is already inebriated," Beierschmitt explained. "Those restaurants without a license don’t monitor patrons in the same way and can just allow them to stay and keep on drinking."
Higgins said she would be drafting an ordinance that would require the owner of a restaurant to take responsibility for any patron who appears to already have had to much liquor and to take the liquor away from them and return it to them when they leave the restaurant.
Councilman Michael Toubin told his fellow council members that it should be the responsibility of the restaurant owners to "police themselves." He said the ordinance should have "teeth" in the law.
"If a person comes in with two six-packs, we need to make someone responsible for it," Toubin said, emphasizing that there should be fines levied for violating the ordinance.
Mayor Michael Wilson said he believes this is another quality of life issue in the borough, citing the fact that cases of beer and liquor were found in front of businesses on West Main Street that had possibly come from the restaurants.
"Restaurant owners already have the right to tell people not to drink any more," Higgins said.
Beierschmitt said he needed something in writing, like an ordinance, to "back that fact up."
Higgins said she will work on drafting an ordinance and then present it to Beierschmitt for his input.