Shut down

Bars in St. John's have gotten into trouble in the past for a variety of infractions. Anything from too many people which lead to fire code regulations, or perhaps admitting under aged patron. I think one or two might have gotten in trouble for serving booze to people who were way too impaired.

However, I've never heard of one being penalized like this. From the Nunatsiaq News, this little tidbit:

Liquor infractions shut Storehouse for weekend

Iqaluit's Storehouse Bar and Grill will be closed tonight and tomorrow after a hearing of the Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board.

The bar's owners admitted they let drunk people stay in the bar on three separate occasions in 2006 and 2007, and had too many people in the bar in April 2007.

In addition to the suspended licence, the Storehouse faces a $4,000 fine. Its employees must also undergo a liquor service training program as a condition of employment.

Despite the punishment, liquor board chair David Wilman said he was "impressed with the licencee's acknowledgement of its responsibility for these contraventions of the liquor legislation and its cooperation with liquor enforcement."

If the liquor board in Newfoundland did something like this - shut down a bar on a weekend as a penalty, you would hear the howls from one part of town to the other. There's no way they would accept it. And yet, the Storehouse went along with it. I can only imagine how much it's costing them to close for two nights on a weekend. Thousands of dollars in profit, certainly. Maybe even more.

I wonder where people looking for a drink will go this weekend. The Legion can only take so many. I imagine there will be a few house parties in town this weekend.