AMHERST — A downtown Amherst restaurant will not be able to serve alcohol to patrons for a week next month, based on an Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission violation that determined alcohol was delivered to boarding students at the MacDuffie School in Granby in February 2020.
While Panda East, 103 North Pleasant St., has its alcohol sales suspended from Jan. 9 to 15, members of the Board of License Commissioners are left wondering if they could have offered advice on when the business would face its punishment, noting that the winter session at the University of Massachusetts means a reduced population in town.
“Can we offer a suggestion of when those days are,” said Vice Chairman Douglas Slaughter at the board’s Dec. 1 meeting, adding that January is a usually a quiet time of year for Amherst businesses.
“The sting of the penalty is not as great when you have it during a period of time that’s not as busy,” Slaughter said.
Panda East has had violations in the past. Slaughter said that in January and April 2016, the Select Board, then acting as Amherst’s licensing board, found the restaurant in violation of alcohol laws. The first time the violation was for the alleged sale of Scorpion Bowls to 17 underage drinkers in fall 2015, and the second time it was for allegedly serving alcohol to minors on two more occasions in spring 2016. The second violation led to Panda East surrendering its liquor license for 55 consecutive days that May and June. That punishment, though, was not as severe as Slaughter had sought, with his colleagues concerned about harming the long-term prospects for the business.
Licensing Coordinator Steven McCarthy said the board could write a letter to the ABCC encouraging a stiffer penalty this time, though he wasn’t sure if it would matter.
Commissioner Dillon Maxfield said the violations by Panda East appear as egregious as any that have occurred at the business.
“Actively delivering alcohol to 16-year-olds?” Maxfield said. “My God.”
The violation, while nearly three years old and based on use of an undercover operative, resulted in a hearing before the ABCC in December 2021. In November, the state agency found the business responsible for the unlawful sale of alcohol for off-premises consumption and unlawful transportation of alcohol without a permit.
According to the disposition of the case, signed by ABCC Chairman Jean M. Lorizio and the other state commissioners, ABCC was informed by a Granby police officer that alcohol and cigarettes were being brought by Panda East employees to underage students at MacDuffie. That led to a joint investigation by the state agency and Amherst and Granby Police.
Using an undercover operative who spoke Mandarin, an order was placed for a bottle of vodka that would be delivered to the MacDuffie campus, though it would be concealed so it couldn’t be detected once at the school. The operative was informed the vodka would be placed in a different container for a $30 fee.
With observations at both the restaurant and the school, investigators and police officers determined that an Aquafina water bottle was filled with the vodka. That bottle was brought to the campus with food that had been ordered.
An employee at the restaurant defended the action, saying he was solely responsible for what happened and that it was appropriate to get “a little” alcohol to the students since it was Valentine’s Day. The employee also told the investigators and police that this was the first time since “long ago” that alcohol was brought to the school. The delivery driver, the employee said, was unaware that the bottle had vodka in it.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.