SNOW HILL — The Board of License Commissioners (BLC) meeting for June saw the approval of an unusually high number of new or modified alcoholic beverage licenses.
Included among the approvals was a Class B beer and wine license for Martin Fish Company, located at 12929 Harbor Road. It’s a distinct property, according to Mark Cropper, the attorney for the restaurant.
“Really, there is no other restaurant that I can think of in all of Worcester County where you can sit there while eating a meal and watch this type of wholesale fish operation that Martin Fish Company has done for 40 years as they come to load and unload the fish and bring it into your store where they see it being prepared for sales,” said Cropper. “It’s truly a unique situation that nobody else has.”
The board did have some concerns with the parking situation at Martin Fish Company. However, nine spaces have recently been added to the facility’s parking lot, bringing the total to 19. There is room on the dock to tie up personal watercraft, which Cropper said make up a large percentage of the restaurant’s clientele.
Also receiving a new license, in this case a Class D beer, wine and liquor, was Beach Barrels, located at 13207 Coastal Highway. The site had formerly held a business that sold alcohol and so granting this new license is really just filling a gap left in that neighborhood, according to Joe Moore, attorney for Beach Barrels.
“So that your service that you will be providing, if the board grants you your request, will be in effect a re-opening of what was previously a licensed area,” he said to the owners, who agreed to his characterization.
In addition to the new licenses, modified, transferred or upgraded licenses were granted to Greenhouse Deli, located at 1503 Philadelphia Avenue, OC’s Restaurant and Sushi Bar, located at 1804 N. Philadelphia Avenue, and O.C.M. Crabs, located at 7111 Coastal Highway.
“People are coming to buy the crabs and [don’t want] to have to go to another location to get beer,” Cropper said in reference to O.C.M.’s application for a Class B beer and wine license transfer.
None of the approved new or modified licenses received any protest from their respective neighborhoods, which can often be the case when introducing or expanding alcohol service in an area. The only two license applications denied by the board were located outside of Ocean City, one in Berlin and one in Snow Hill. Both of those would have been for a Class D beer, wine and liquor license and both received a mix of protest and support from their neighborhoods.