Eight Establishments Pass Underage Alcohol Check

When the city ran its first undercover alcohol compliance check in March 2009, five out of eight establishments failed to check an underage girl's ID before serving her a beer.

Another undercover check was undertaken last Friday, June 11. This time, all eight establishments passed.

The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition ran the check with the Melrose Police Department, with support from the Melrose Liquor Licensing Commission and Melrose Health Department, according to Coalition coordinator Kara Showers.

An 18-year-old boy from Phillipston and 19-year-old girl from Lynn were taken by Showers and Melrose Police School Resource Officer John Ross to each of the eight establishments and asked to leave their ID in the car, Showers said.

"You don't use youths from your community to conduct the checks because it's kind of for their saftety, but also because they may know one of the servers," she said. "It's just to take that out of the equation."

Melrose Police Chief Mike Lyle said each undercover youth is given a documented amount of funds, goes into the restaurant or store and asks to either purchase an alcohol beverage at the restaurant or attempt to purchase alcohol from the store.

"If the shopkeeper or waiter, whoever it may be, fails to ask for an ID, then the officer goes in and they counsel them and share information with them relative to statistics of serving to underage people," Lyle said. "If not, they congratulate them for checking IDs."

Lyle said the eight establishments that passed this most recent check were:

• McDonough's Fine Wine, 4 Main St.
• Bobby C's, 20 Main St.
• Mexico Lindo, 449 Main St.
• Absolutely Fabulous, 454 Main St.
• Stearns and Hill's Bistro, 505 Main St.
• Turner's Seafood Grill & Market, 506 Main St.
• Beacon Hill Wine and Gourmet, 538 Main St.
• Mount Hood Golf Course Clubhouse, 100 Slayton Rd.

"They were eight for eight and I commend them all," Lyle said.

The Liquor Licensing Commission is responsible for penalizing establishments that do not pass the alcohol compliance check, with a first offense resulting in penalties ranging — at the discretion of the Licensing Commission — from a warning to a consecutive two-day suspension of each establishment's liquor license. A second offense within two years results in a three-to-seven consecutive day suspension of the alcohol license, or a rollback of the establishment's closing hours for three to 12 days for at least three consecutive days. Third and subsequent offenses result in a seven-or-more day suspension of the liquor license or revocation of the license.

The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition will also provide free serving training this summer for all Melrose establishments that serve alcohol, via the Liquor Licensing Commission.