NEW HAVEN (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Toad's place, a legendary music club in New Haven, Connecticut has been slapped with a 90,000 dollar fine and forced to close for the duration of a 90 day liquor license suspension, the New Haven Register reported.
The club, located in downtown New Haven, near the Yale campus has been bringing music to the Elm City since 1975. It has played host to concerts by the likes of the Rolling Stones, R.E.M., U2 & Bob Dylan as well as many other nationally known touring acts in it's 30 year history, in addition to a regular calendar of popular weekend dance events and up and coming regional acts.
Brian Phelps, the owner of the club agreed on November 2nd to the suspension to settled two pending cases in front of the state liquor commission. According to the New Haven Register, the terms of the agreement stipulate that the club will pay a whopping 90,000 dollar fine and remain closed from May 6 – Aug 3, 2007.
The settlement will settle two pending cases, one stemming from a Nov. 5 2005 raid in which 142 minors were found on premises and another incident from January of that year.
The decision for Toad's Place is particularly pointed, with suspensions for similar incidents typically being of much shorter durations and fines frequently closer to $10,000 dollars than the $90,000 behemoth levied on Toad's
"The severity of this settlement sends a very strong message to liquor retailers in Connecticut that sales of alcohol to minors is serious business that will not be tolerated," said state Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Edwin R. Rodriguez.
Phelps has said that the club should be able to survive the sanctions. More than sixty of the club's employees will be laid-off and the company that had been handling security has been dispensed with entirely.
Employees are now being more assiduously trained in admittance procedures and technological solutions such as scanners for IDs are being implemented to hopefully avoid liquor license compliance issues in the future. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
