Council Fines Two City Restaurants for Serving Alcohol to Minors

The East Providence City Council levied fines on two of the four city restaurants that illegally served alcohol to minors during a police sting operation. The four were , East Buffet, and .

The first two faced the council Tuesday night. Because East Buffet owner Wendy Lin was a no-show, the council moved on to Avenue N.

East Providence Police Sgt. John Andrews told the council about the Avenue N violation stemming from an between the state and East Providence using underage decoys. Andrews ended his testimony by elaborating on the serious nature of the violation and arguing that a lack of employee training was not the cause.

“It’s a serious offense. It’s a 17-year-old, basically juvenile, and an 18-year-old minor that got served,” Andrews said. “Whether the people that were there had been trained there in the RBS [Responsible Beverage Service Training], I don’t see that matters too much, because the RBS tells you how to pour, tells you how to tell when people are intoxicated, more than the common sense thing that this is a 17-year-old girl.”

Avenue N owner Nick Rabar (a former East Providence Patch columnist) next testified before the council, saying that the server is currently being Training for Intervention Services (TIPS) certified after having returned from Montana. Rabar also said the waitress is still working at Avenue N while being certified and has no previous serving experience. He also said that all but three staff members were TIPS certified before working at Avenue N and that those three are now certified.

“We’re appreciative of this matter and working with the officers to show us that we certainly have room to improve,” Rabar said in response to a question from Mayor Bruce Rogers.

“Our efforts are to do the right thing for the community,” Rabar said, referencing his restaurant’s sponsorships of sport teams, charity races and donations to the YMCA.

“Mistakes do happen when you have a high-volume establishment and do create employees,” Rabar said. “But these great employees do have hearts and would never do anything with any contempt or malice or would [serve minors] to make an extra buck, by any means. It was certainly just an error; we are appreciative for being shown that we are vulnerable to errors, and we’ve taken the necessary precautions to improve our service.”

Rabar added that his business takes the violation as “seriously as [the] council does.”

Sgt. Andrews earlier alerted the council that the underage operation was not the only problem at Avenue N. He described a later incident when Avenue N had customers drinking alcohol at 2 in the morning ­– one hour after the city’s law permits. Rabar said he was unaware of the 1 am closing time, citing his extensive experience working as a chef in Providence where bars close at 2 am. He also said that there was “not an open check in the place” and that last call had been called at 1:30 am. Even so, Rabar said it was “100 percent [his] fault.”

Sgt. Andrews later told the council he was in favor of fining Avenue N with the minimum fine of $250. Councilman At-Large William Conley put forth such a motion which was seconded by Councilwoman Katie Kleyla.

Rabar said that he accepted the outcome and would be “proud” to work with the police department and the city council “in any shape and form,” as he wishes to be “part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

After hearing Rabar’s testimony, Councilman Michael DiGioia praised Rabar’s transparency.

“I just want to thank you. I think you showed great professionalism,” DiGoia said to Rabar. “I appreciate your response and taking responsibility in the way that you did.”

Councilman DiGioia was not the only person in attendance who appreciated Rabar's candor. Jennifer Wall of the East Providence Prevention Coalition, a city office that helps organize the youth operations, said she thought the outcome was fair given the newness of the business and Rabar's honesty.

"I think the incident and the specific outcome was handled very well by the owner, in terms of working with the police department," Wall said.

After Sgt. Andrews briefly testified before the council on the youth decoy operation that lead to the violation in the case of East Buffet, Rogers asked if a member of the council would make a motion on his behalf to fine the business $500 “seeing that they didn’t think it was important enough to show.” They motion passed unanimously.

Riverside Kitchen and El Azteca are expected to appear before the council in September.