Several nightclubs in the Theater District are facing earlier closing times and may even be forced to shut down if they continue to sell alcohol to minors and fail to manage unruly crowds, the Boston Licensing Board warned at a hearing at City Hall yesterday.
Board officials cited 20 incidents at 16 venues — including popular hangouts Cosmopolitan Bar ‘ Restaurant, Domino’s Pizza, Lucky House Restaurant, Roxy, Rumor, Venu and Wonder Bar — in which owners violated their licenses dating back to January.
The Board will decide the nightclubs’ fates Thursday at a follow-up meeting.
“It’s coming to the [point] that we won’t allow anyone to open past two [a.m.],” Board chairman Daniel Pokaski said. “We will roll back every place in that area that we think is a problem.”
Referring to several violations at Rumors, Pokaski recommended the Board suspend the license for anywhere between two weeks and a month.
“We’ve had it with this premises,” he said.
On Feb. 2, an intoxicated female with a fake Massachusetts driver’s license told officers she had been drinking at Rumor. On Feb. 22, officers had to help the club’s staff coerce a crowd trying to enter the club off of Warrenton Street because it was blocking traffic.
That night, officers who entered the club reported underage drinking and people dancing on raised platforms, said Boston Police Department detective Daniel O’Neill. Some club patrons had also used fake out-of-country driver’s licenses and photocopied passports to enter the club, he said.
Representatives from Rumor did not dispute the violations.
“We were in the process of reaching capacity and were about to tell people that they had to leave the premises,” said Tom Montgomery, Rumor’s security director. “It was a difficult time at best.”
Montgomery told the Board that Rumor policy prohibits staff from accepting any identification from foreign countries, but he would not say whether the club plans to penalize the staff who accepted the questionable IDs.
Rumor representatives said the club has had its hands full with underage patrons trying to gain entry into the club since January, when Boston banned 19-plus nights at several clubs in an effort to curb violence. Now, more patrons are resorting to fake IDs to get into the club in the first place, when they previously had only used the IDs to illegally obtain alcohol once inside, they said.
The Roxy nightclub, located just one block away from Rumor, was criticized during the meeting for not doing enough to stop unruly crowds from spilling into the street.
BPD officer Fred Williams said it took between 14 and 15 officers to clear the streets and a packed parking garage across the street from the club in a similar incident in late January.
Roxy Group President Louis Delpidio said the club has kept itself closed on several Friday nights because it needs time to devise a better crowd-control strategy, adding it has recently installed a security system in the parking garage.
“Whether [or not] the Roxy is closed on Friday nights, it’s going to be a busy street,” the Roxy defense added.