Danvers Moves To Revoke Restaurant's License For Alcohol Violation

DANVERS, MA — The Danvers Select Board moved to revoke the alcohol license of a chain restaurant whose employees failed an alcohol compliance check shortly before closing its Newbury Street location earlier this year.

Police Chief James Lovell told the Board on Tuesday night that an underaged girl was served a Bud Light without a proper identification check during a compliance check on Dec. 20 and that notice of the violation was given to the server and supervisor on duty at the time. He said both the server and manager were cooperative with officers.

While violators of the annual checks are typically then brought before the Select Board to potentially face an alcohol license suspension, the company that owns the chain closed down the Danvers location two weeks later — along with five other Massachusetts locations — with no apparent plans to reopen in Danvers.

Faced with no recourse for the violation, and with a town liquor license that is not being actively used, Board members chose to ask TGI Friday's representatives to voluntarily surrender the license — which is paid for through 2024 — or to come before the Board on April 16 to face a hearing of revocation for non-use of the license and, theoretically, to answer for the compliance fail.

TGI Friday's continues to operate other restaurant locations in Massachusetts, including Methuen and Everett, but Danvers officials would have no jurisdiction over licenses at those locations.

Select Board members acknowledged that it would not make sense to penalize a potential future tenant for the location for a violation that occurred before they operated the space.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)