About 70 people - including two who said they were attacked over the weekend near the Belvedere Hotel in Mount Vernon - attended a hearing Wednesday morning where the owners of a club linked to area violence asked a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to reverse the liquor board's decision to revoke the club's license.
Peter A. Prevas - an attorney for Louis V. Wood, the owner of Suite Ultralounge - argued that a new law governing BYOB "bottle clubs" that went into effect last year was "sloppy" and unclear, and said the club owner's due-process rights had been violated at a revocation hearing. The club operates from the basement of the historic Belvedere Hotel and attracts a crowd that sometimes swells to hundreds. The hotel houses other bars, as well.
But attorneys for the city and neighborhood association said the liquor board was within its rights to shut down the bottle club. At a hearing last fall, police and community members said the club had been linked to increased violence in the neighborhood, including a double shooting and a stabbing Oct. 11. The club's license was revoked in November, but it has remained open pending the appeal. Since then, the violence and noise complaints have gotten worse, residents said.
