The highest volume restaurant in Montgomery County was fined a total of $9,000 by the county on Thursday two weeks after admitting to a slew of alcohol violations related to a half-price wine special.
The county’s Board of License Commissioners agreed to fine Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge $5,000, plus $2,000 for the restaurant’s alcohol sales to minors and $2,000 for failing to make certain records available on the night of Aug. 11.
On that night, a group of Montgomery County Police officers and Department of Liquor Control officials went into the restaurant (2 Preserve Parkway) to investigate reports from the community of overservice and service to underage patrons.
Police said they had received the reports of fights in the parking lot in relation to the restaurant’s Monday night half-price wine special. The restaurant’s manager said two weeks ago that he saw an increasing amount of issues on Monday nights over the summer.
Two officers in street clothes and a DLC inspector witnessed numerous customers who appeared underage with alcohol. One DLC inspector took photos of a patron roaming around the restaurant with a pitcher of beer and of an off-duty employee, who cops said blew a .231 on a portable breathalyzer test.
The legal limit to drive in Maryland is .07.
In a hearing in front of the Board of License Commissioners two weeks ago, restaurant officials explained that they had stopped the half price wine special in the bar areas, had hired an outside expert on fake IDs to tighten up their ID-checking process and fired one waiter responsible for serving a table of underage patrons.
Police issued seven civil citations for fake IDs. All seven patrons with fake IDs were younger than 21, police said. Officers issued five civil citations for possession of alcohol under 21 and all five of those patrons were drinking inside the restaurant and had blood alcohol content levels higher than .10.
The penalties levied on Thursday also include a requirement that all Clyde’s staff take ALERT training.