BERLIN – The Worcester County Board of License Commissioners granted alcohol privileges to Plaza Tapatia in north Ocean City last week but only after warning the proprietors not to serve minors.
William Esham, chairman of the board of license commissioners (BLC), told the restaurant’s connections that because they’d had liquor violations at other locations, it was critical they didn’t have any at the Gold Coast Mall restaurant.
“If you start with violations at this one we’re going to be looking at the whole picture,” Esham said.
Plaza Tapatia’s Armando and Junior Saldana approached the BLC this month to seek a license to serve alcohol in their establishment at 118th Street. Although the 135-seat restaurant had been open briefly without a liquor license, the Saldanas said customers often left when they discovered alcohol was not served there.
“We’ve had people walk out left and right,” Junior Saldana said.
BLC member Charles Nichols said he was concerned with the fact that in Worcester County, Plaza Tapatia—which has seven locations on the Eastern Shore and two in Missouri— had had four violations within two years.
“The only thing we can say is Armando has not been present during those violations,” said Pete Cosby, the attorney for Saldana. “He has a lot of restaurants he runs a lot of people.”
Saldana told the board he would be spending three or four hours a day at the new restaurant and that his son, Junior, would be its manager.
Junior Saldana said that while he had been the manager on duty when one of Plaza Tapatia’s sales to a minor had occurred, he was committed to ensuring there were no such violations in the future.
“I told you guys it would not happen again,” he said.
Esham and Nichols said they were still worried about potential problems.
“When we look at your dad’s history, it’s not pretty,” Esham said. “We’re not encouraged by what we see.”
Junior Saldana told the board that in an effort to keep his staff from serving minors alcohol, he offered a class in English and Spanish at the restaurants he managed. He said he even showed employees fake IDs that were picked up from college students at Plaza Tapatia’s Salisbury locations so they’d know what to watch out for.
Board members agreed to grant the new restaurant a license on the condition that a formal employee training program was in place before any alcoholic beverages were served.
“A training program is a must,” Nichols said.
Following Plaza Tapatia’s hearing, the BLC approved a license request from The Big Easy on 60. The eatery, located on 59th Street, will occupy the former space of Hall’s Restaurant. Mark Hall, whose parents operated that longtime Ocean City establishment, told the BLC that he was making substantial changes to the site prior to opening The Big Easy. He said his goal was to establish a restaurant a bit different from the others in the resort.
“The reason we’re calling it The Big Easy is that’s the birthplace of jazz,” he said. “We’re trying to go that direction with the atmosphere.”
The BLC approved the license request after Hall agreed to remove three tables situated too close to Coastal Highway.
At Wednesday’s meeting the BLC also approved Nolan Graves’ plans to expand the Crab Bag at 130th Street and a request to allow live entertainment at the 45th Street Tap House.
