Hofbrauhaus Newport’s Comedy of Errors

Aug 29, 2011 by Ben Sherman

If you’ve ever been here on a Friday or Saturday night, it’s very possible that you saw this coming down the pipe. The Enquirer and Fox 19 are reporting that the Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has issued a judgment (full text here) against Hofbrauhaus Newport for operating a disorderly premise. Indeed, the judgment itself outlines no less than 10 incidents of violence, 8 of them based apparently overzealous bouncers assaulting or otherwise mistreating customers (the highlight of the bunch is “[Patron X] was assaulted and struck in the head with a spring-loaded baton by Hofbrauhaus security employee [Y] after being escorted off the premises..” ). The penalty that they’ve levied is pretty steep; Hofbrauhaus has been slapped a with a 50 day ‘suspension’ of it’s licenses to sell and brew beer. They can pay to get out of the first 25 days for $1250, and the last 25 are essentially forgiven provided they don’t violate any the of the regulations that they were found to have broken at any point over the next two years.

For it’s part, Hofbrauhaus has argued that it was just trying to prevent beer stein theft (they claim to be losing them at a rate of 150-200 per week). They’ve also posted a letter on their Facebook page saying that it disagreed with the findings and are “in the process of evaluating an appropriate response”. They also note that they could potentially appeal the decision in a court of law.

I’m sure that I’m not the first to say it, but Hofbrauhaus is almost catching a lucky break if half of the things in that report are accurate. I’ve worked as a bouncer in Ohio, and while I’m not sure that the laws are the same, I’d be willing to bet that they are pretty similar. What we were always taught is that the only time that physical contact is considered legally acceptable is when a patron poses a threat to the safety of other customers or employees (read: creates a liability issue for the establishment). This report reads like these bouncers were told that they were allowed to physically shake down anyone that didn’t consent to a personal search upon leaving the building. Now, to their credit, Hofbrauhaus has always had signs posted indicating that your bags were subject to a search upon leaving, and I think most reasonable people would consent to that with no issue anyways, but wrestling a guy to the ground when he refuses to let you search his wife is terrible business policy, particularly when the guy that your (felon) bouncer almost choked out was a lawyer. The report does indicate that they have now changed this policy, but how it went on for so long is beyond me.

The real kicker from an industry point-of-view here is that Hofbrauhaus admits in the report that the vast majority of the issues that they’ve had are due to over-serving customers, and again, if you’ve spent any time at all there, it’d be hard to debate that. Giant steins of potent beer combined with people that are accustomed to drinking 12oz cans of Bud Light will cause problems every time. Herein lies their problem; serving alcohol to someone that is intoxicated is technically illegal. It’s not easy to prove, and it’s almost never enforced save for issues such as this, but now the proverbial spotlight is on them, and the Kentucky ordinances against a disorderly establishment and over-serving (respectively) are the two code violations that will cause them to have to re-appear before the board with their license on the line. Will Hofbrauhaus cut into it’s revenue stream and start cutting people off more frequently? Perhaps, but that’s such a double-edged sword in terms of customer retention vs. legal standing that I have my doubts. No one wants to become the bar that cuts you off after two beers, even if they were served in giant steins. That’s the kind of bar that their primary weekend demographic avoids.

I don’t have anything against Hofbrauhaus. I’ve spent plenty of time as a patron there. I’m not a huge fan of the atmosphere when it’s busy, but the food is good and the beer is pretty top notch, at least to my untrained palate. I really would hate to see the place close down for almost two months, as I imagine that’d be a death knell, or at the very least seriously harm their viability as a business. However, it’s pretty hard to fathom how management let what has obviously been happening there go on for so long, and old habits die hard, especially in the bar business. Now whether the board would actually shut them down or simply continue to slap them with fines is another question entirely. We’re not exactly in an economy where the government closing down a business, even an unruly one, is likely to be smiled upon by many voters. However it plays out, I’d wager that we’ve not heard the last of the incident.

Image Credit: TheRealEdwin on Flickr under Creative Commons. Thanks!