Zinburger Owners Charged for Fake Booze at Other Restaurants

A Livingston-based hospitality company that operates a Cherry Hill restaurant will pay half a million dollars in fines for serving cheap booze disguised as top-shelf liquor, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Director Michael Halfacre announced Wednesday.

The Briad Group, which runs Zinburger in the Towne Plaza at Garden State Park, didn’t contest charges that eight T.G.I. Friday’s locations owned by the company were serving fake high-end liquor.

Neither the Cherry Hill Zinburger location nor the company’s two other Zinburgers, in Clifton and Paramus, were accused in the sting that caught the T.G.I. Friday’s.

“Briad’s restaurants were scamming customers by serving them a cheap substitute for what they ordered,” Hoffman said in a statement. “This unlawful practice took advantage of consumers who were cheated out of what they thought they were purchasing. This fine should send a clear message to every bar and restaurant throughout New Jersey that customers should get what they pay for every time without exception.”

Eight of 13 T.G.I. Friday’s raided in Operation Swill, the sting run by ABC and Division of Criminal Justice investigators, were charged and included in the settlement; all eight were in central and northern New Jersey.

The T.G.I. Friday’s in Cherry Hill, which is not operated by Briad, wasn’t targeted in the sting.

Briad will have to employ an ABC-appointed monitor through June 30, 2014, as part of the settlement. That person will mostly focus on the eight restaurants named in the settlement, but could extend the oversight to Briad’s other locations, including the three Zinburger locations, should the monitor deem it necessary, officials said.

"We look forward to putting this matter behind us," Briad officials said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "Throughout the investigative process, we fully cooperated with the New Jersey ABC. We will continue to cooperate with New Jersey ABC moving forward."

Briad will pay the ABC $400,000 for its violations plus $100,000 for investigative costs as part of the settlement, and will have to make changes to employee training and recordkeeping.

“Drink substitution threatens the integrity of the alcoholic beverage industry, and retailers, wholesalers and customers all lose because of this illegal activity,” said Halfacre. “The financial penalty imposed on Briad should serve as a deterrent to licensees, and we are optimistic that the corrective actions taken by Briad will prevent any further deceptive practices.”

A total of 29 restaurants were targeted in Operation Swill; investigators seized roughly 1,000 bottles of booze in the undercover sting, which included one Camden County spot—Villari’s Lakeside in Gloucester Township.

The investigation is still ongoing in regards to all the other restaurants and bars named in the operation, officials said, including the one against Villari’s Lakeside.