Alcoholic Beverages

Howard County's legislative delegation to Annapolis will conduct a public hearing and sponsor briefing 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.The hearing will address the following prefiled local bills:* Alcoholic beverages: beer, wine and cordial tasting privilege.* Wine Festival license.* Class B (on-sale) beer, wine and liquor licenses.* Alcoholic beverages caterer's license.* Howard County Sheriff's Department.* Circuit Court judgeship.

The cops surely picked the wrong place to drink after work -- their chief's favorite morning hangout, Miss Shirley's, especially since they were in partial police uniform. But here's the other question this raises -- what were they drinking? The upscale eatery with locations in Roland Park and at the Inner Harbor doesn't have beer on the menu. Now, cops aren't limited to beer, but still, some of these drinks come with umbrellas. The “Wet your whistle” page offers the $5.99 Miss Mimosa - the classic champagne and fresh-squeezed orange juice, garnished with pulp, and a $7.99 Spicy Shirely, a Bloody Mary with pickled okra, Jalapenos and lump crab.

Jazz concert -- The Women's Club of Linthicum Heights will present the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition, at 6 p.m. Sunday at Linthicum Park, on Benton Avenue, off Route 170. Participants are asked to take chairs, blankets and coolers. No alcoholic beverages are permitted. The show will be canceled if it rains. Free. 410-859-3308.

The Harford County Liquor Control Board has to do better, and usually does, than the nonsense it perpetrated last week. The Mallet, a Fallston restaurant and bar, which so far has apparently followed the rules, shut down its lower level last Wednesday night and rented it out for a private birthday party. The party, hosted and paid for by a prominent Harford County developer as a surprise for his wife, featured a performance by Bret Michaels, an international rock star who in recent years has become just as famous for his reality TV presence.

If Charles C. Feaga, a Howard County councilman and chairman of the liquor board, had his way, the three-day Columbia City Fair would be a dry affair.Mr. Feaga has sent a letter to the operators of the June 21-23 fair, arguing that in the past, serving beer, wine and mixed drinks "has been a factor in the disturbances which have occurred where the police department has had to intervene."In sending the letter, Mr. Feaga said he was writing not as chairman of the liquor board, but as a citizen who has a "deep concern" about the availability of alcoholic beverages at the Columbia fair.

Owners of a popular Towson restaurant and bar were ordered by the Baltimore County liquor board to pay a $1,000 fine and stop serving alcoholic beverages for four days starting Jan. 7.Robert H. and Timothy C. Brannan, owners of Poor Richard's in the first block of E. Pennsylvania Ave., did not dispute allegations that their barmaid served an underage, undercover police cadet Aug. 4 without asking for any identification.In addition, the board received testimony about a fight near closing time Sept.

A photo caption in yesterday's editions stated incorrectly that under state law alcoholic beverages would not be sold during primary election polling hours.The Sun regrets the errors.Perfect weather is forecast today for the Maryland primary election to choose Democratic and Republican candidates for governor, U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and for scores of state and local offices.The state's 1,702 polling places open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Registered voters are reminded to bring identification.

An underage police cadet bought alcoholic beverages last night in six Baltimore establishments, police said. A male cadet, 19, was able to buy alcoholic beverages at each of the bars and was not asked for identification, said Sgt. Craig Gentile of the vice enforcement unit. Gentile said the establishments cited were Jerome Liquors in the first block of E. Preston St.; Midtown Spirit & Wine Cellar in the first block of W. Biddle St.; M & D Liquors in the 2000 block of Pennsylvania Ave.; the Wharf Rat in the 200 block of E. Pratt St.; the Downtown Spirit Exchange in the 200 block of E. Pratt St., and the North Inn, in the first block of E. North Ave., which also was cited Oct. 12.

The cops surely picked the wrong place to drink after work -- their chief's favorite morning hangout, Miss Shirley's, especially since they were in partial police uniform. But here's the other question this raises -- what were they drinking? The upscale eatery with locations in Roland Park and at the Inner Harbor doesn't have beer on the menu. Now, cops aren't limited to beer, but still, some of these drinks come with umbrellas. The “Wet your whistle” page offers the $5.99 Miss Mimosa - the classic champagne and fresh-squeezed orange juice, garnished with pulp, and a $7.99 Spicy Shirely, a Bloody Mary with pickled okra, Jalapenos and lump crab.

After years of disturbances at Towson's after-hours Club 101, police finally have a weapon to take the owner to court.A little-used law banning alcoholic beverages during early hours of the morning led to a summons issued Monday for a liquor law violation at the club. A Baltimore County District Court date is set for Nov. 19.The action follows stepped-up police surveillance at the club this summer in which officers issued numerous criminal citations for narcotics, alcohol and other offenses.

Five establishments licensed to sell alcoholic beverages in Harford County failed a recent compliance test run by the county's liquor control board by allegedly selling alcohol to a minor who was working undercover for the board. The five alleged violators included two golf clubs, a hotel, a restaurant and an American Legion post, according to a liquor board news release. Twenty-two Harford County licensed alcohol locations were randomly tested on July 23 by using personnel from the Harford County Sheriff's Office, an underage employee from the Liquor Control Board's undercover program and an inspector from the Harford County Liquor Control Board, according to the news release.

O, Milan! You rascal! Milan is on the docket of the Board of Liquor License Commisioners hearing for Thursday, July 21. Here's what for: [Note that interested parties should call 410-396-4385 the day before the hearings to verify that a particular case is still scheduled.] Christopher Whetstone & Gavaskar Sharp, Suites @ Milano, LLC T/a Milan, 1000-04 Eastern Avenue - Class “B” Beer, Wine & Liquor License - Violation of Rule 4.10(a) “No licensee shall purchase alcoholic beverages except from a duly licensed manufacturer or wholesaler; nor shall any licensee sell to any other licensee any alcoholic beverages; and no licensee shall, at any time, keep or permit to be kept upon the licensed premises, any alcoholic beverages unless purchased in accordance with the Rule” on June 6, 2011 (Re:  Forty three (43)

Faster than you can say, "Irish coffee," the powers-that-be clamped down on the sale of juice-flavored alcoholic drinks infused with caffeine last week. The Food and Drug Administration has labeled the caffeine in drinks like "Four Loko" to be an unsafe additive, and the manufacturer of that particular product has already pledged to stop using it. Rarely has an alcoholic beverage — one that can be fairly easily duplicated by mixing vodka with a typical energy drink and that has been on store shelves for eight years — received such harsh and universal condemnation.

Jazz concert -- The Women's Club of Linthicum Heights will present the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition, at 6 p.m. Sunday at Linthicum Park, on Benton Avenue, off Route 170. Participants are asked to take chairs, blankets and coolers. No alcoholic beverages are permitted. The show will be canceled if it rains. Free. 410-859-3308.

Angela Pierce and husband Nicolas used to enjoy a dinner date once a week. Now the Culver City, Calif., couple patronize restaurants just twice a month, thanks to gasoline prices that are on average 71 cents a gallon higher nationwide than a year ago. Unfortunately for the $175 billion U.S. sit-down restaurant business, the Pierces aren't the only ones staying away from their favorite eating places. In the past few months, restaurants such as Chili's, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee's - what analysts call the "casual dining" category that offers table service and alcoholic beverages - have recorded small but discouraging sales declines.

Imagine a high-school prom where anyone can dance with the captain of the football team or the head cheerleader (or both), where you can drink alcoholic beverages (for a price), where there aren't any chaperones and you can make up for whatever went wrong at your own prom. According to Ken Davenport, creator and director of The Awesome 80s Prom -- which begins performances at the Hippodrome's M&T Bank Pavilion tomorrow -- that's part of the thinking behind this interactive show, in its second year in New York.

WASHINGTON -- The emerging economic struggle between traditional and cyberspace merchants was highlighted yesterday as a media conflict erupted over fears of teens buying alcoholic beverages over the Internet.An undercover sting operation in New York showed underage customers could order alcoholic beverages from the World Wide Web and have them shipped to their homes without proving their age -- "no questions asked," said Dennis Vacco, the state's attorney general.However, Vacco conceded that he knows of no instance outside of sting operations in which a teen-ager has actually ordered beer, wine or liquor over the Internet and received it.Cyberspace sellers charged that the issue is a bogus one promoted by traditional retailers and wholesalers worried about losing sales to the Internet.

HAGERSTOWN - A tractor-trailer driver steered his big rig onto the parking lot of the state police barracks at Hagerstown yesterday afternoon, and said he was lost. But police said he was also drunk - and found in the vehicle several six-packs of beer, and cans, pints and liter bottles of various alcoholic beverages, many of them partially empty, and others empty. The rig, "obviously over 40 feet in length," was driven past a sign on the roadway near the barracks prohibiting vehicles of larger size, police said.

The licensees of Tersiguel's French Country restaurant in Ellicott City were fined $500 by the Howard County Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board and lost 138 bottles of wine to the Maryland comptroller's office because the wine was not bought legally through a wholesaler. Fernand Tersiguel, owner of the popular French restaurant in the 8200 block Main St., said yesterday that he got the wine from the family of a friend who had died. "I had it for three years," he said, until a disgruntled employee reported the wine to Howard County police, who notified the comptroller's office in September.

HAGERSTOWN - A tractor-trailer driver steered his big rig onto the parking lot of the state police barracks at Hagerstown yesterday afternoon, and said he was lost. But police said he was also drunk - and found in the vehicle several six-packs of beer, and cans, pints and liter bottles of various alcoholic beverages, many of them partially empty, and others empty. The rig, "obviously over 40 feet in length," was driven past a sign on the roadway near the barracks prohibiting vehicles of larger size, police said.