One of the most popular riverfront restaurants in the city was reprimanded Thursday by the city's Beer and Wrecker Board after several violations of the open container law in the past year.
Hamilton County park rangers said they have caught roughly 24 Boathouse Rotisserie and Raw Bar customers drinking on the Tennessee Riverpark trail outside the restaurant since last August. After multiple warnings, the restaurant at 1459 Riverside Drive was issued a citation to appear in front of the beer board this week but no one showed up.
Board members weren't deterred though and fined the Boathouse $1,500 - or a 10-day suspension - from selling beer at the restaurant, which would begin June 21.
A sign prohibiting alcoholic beverages on the Riverwalk can be seen by the Boathouse restaurant."Ten days would really be an eye-opener," said council member Andre Harriman.
Board Chairman Ron Smith said the repeated violations of the law and no employees showing up to the meeting was a show of "flagrant arrogance." Boathouse chief of operations Jesse Rogers said it was just a "miscommunication," though, and he was told he didn't need to be at the meeting.
He said the restaurant plans to pay the fine instead of not selling for 10 days. According to Rogers, he had spoken with several county and city officials and park rangers about the issue and he got the wrong information about attending the meeting, stating it was a "mixup."
"If the fine is what we need to do, then that's what we will do," he said. "We want to do everything we can to be appropriate and do the right thing."
The city's Beer and Wrecker Board has the power to issue, revoke and suspend beer licenses in the area. The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission will hear the case next and decide whether to suspend the sale of wine and spirits at the restaurant. The maximum fine the city's beer board can impose on the restaurant for an open container violation is $1,500.
The Tennessee Riverpark is managed by both Hamilton County and the city of Chattanooga, and park ranger Kevin Moses described to board members Thursday the warnings they provided the restaurant since last August.
According to Moses, there were at least five instances of Boathouse customers on the trail with open containers since last summer and managers were warned every time. In late April, Moses said he was told by the city that rangers should stop warning and begin handing out citations to customers they see drinking on the trail. On May 25, Chattanooga police department officer John Collins cited the restaurant in person and told two different managers the time and date to appear in front of the beer board.
The next night, rangers found a woman drinking on the RiverPark trail and issued her a citation. Later that night they found broken beer bottles on the trail.
"We feel like we made numerous attempts to resolve the situation and every time it got (blown) over," Moses said.
Moses said Hamilton County found out about the issue and has started construction on a black, chain-link fence that will separate the Boathouse from the RiverPark's trail.
"They wanted to make sure there was no question of where the property line was," Moses said about the county. "They reached out and said they'll do it as a service to everybody."
Right now, there is a temporary fence that was put up by Rogers, he said. Rogers said the restaurant has tried to solve the issue the past year and even put up additional signage to warn customers that they can't take alcohol off the premise.
Rogers said he didn't realize there was an issue at the beer board meeting until a reporter called him afterward.
"We do agree with the warnings," Rogers said. "I just also wanted to say there was effort put forth. We were trying - we just weren't successful."
Contact staff writer Allison Shirk at ashirk@timesfreepress.com, @Allison_Shirk or 423-757-6651.