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Several Towson bars accused of selling alcohol to minors appeared before the Baltimore County Liquor Board. Two bars, World of Wine Tavern and Kent Lounge, located on York Road, were fined. Both businesses had instances where they sold to police cadets. The attorney representing World of Wine said a group came in, some of them adults who were able to buy alcohol, and some of them cadets. The person who ordered was of age, but later passed the drinks to those who were not. ALSO READ | The business owner, Gundeep Singh, said the employee admitted the mistake, but was confused in the moment. Singh said they have strict policies in place to prevent minors from buying alcohol. Since then, he said they have passed other checks. The Liquor Board fined World of Wine $750. Another business in the hot seat was Kent Lounge. Owner George Georges said with multiple doors to enter, the employee who worked the front door was late and the bar staff was not aware. Since the bartender thought the check had happened at the door, a cadet was able to slip in and buy a drink. However, Georges reiterated that following the rules and making sure minors cannot buy alcohol is a top priority. Commissioner Susan Green acknowledged the bar has gone a decade without an infraction. They were given a $250 fine. This comes as the Liquor Board suspended the Greene Turtle’s license for Thursdays in October, in addition to levying a $1,000 fine for serving a minor. ALSO READ | The suspension stemmed from an especially chaotic night on August 14. Baltimore County Police said a fight broke out inside the bar, sending roughly 800 unruly customers spilling into the street. The liquor board also claimed the bar received a similar violation back in June. “This was the only place on the strip that allowed 18 and up, so there was a lot of people here, a lot of underaged drinking, a lot of fake ID’s,” one person said. In a statement, Greene Turtle's CEO, Geovannie Concepcion, said, We made a decision to build a flagship store in Towson believing that our long history in the market would be the perfect place to drive the future of our business. Unfortunately, post pandemic the market never recovered fully so in an effort to make things work we did what any business would do and responded to the market conditions. This caused uproar with local competition who then looked to capitalize on a shift that was already happening to make our company the poster child for everything wrong in Towson. This is not the case, we operate 19 other locations in Maryland without issue. It’s unfortunate that a struggling market would embrace such an antibusiness posture and look to run a Maryland founded company out of town along with the many others that already left. He also said cutting back on Thursday promotions could cut profits by $600,000 a year. The bar is preparing to close its doors by the end of the year.
