The Improper Bostonian on Route 28 in Dennisport will not offer entertainment or serve alcohol next May 3. Dennis selectmen imposed the penalty after finding that the establishment over-served alcohol during a beach volleyball event on Sept. 2.
“Over-serving deserves a message sent,” said Selectman Wayne Bergeron following a nearly three-hour licensing hearing on Nov. 20. Selectman Alan Tuttle recommended a Saturday closure, but Selectwoman Sheryl McMahon said that would be “too financially punitive.”
During the hearing, at which selectmen found six violations of the Improper Bostonian’s seasonal all-alcohol license, attorney Jay Murphy of Dennis said his clients, owner Christopher Grimaldi and manager William Ashmore, mistakenly believed that the property could handle this type of event. Sand was trucked onto the Route 28 parking lot; guest bartenders were brought in to accommodate the crowd; and parking was diverted to town lots, including that of the Dennis Public Library.
Chief of police Mike Whalen said that when he was first approached about the event, he expressed concern about removing on-site parking for the event; the close proximity of the parking lot where people who were drinking would be playing volleyball to Route 28; and alcohol being served outdoors. Selectmen called an emergency meeting on Friday, Aug. 31, to issue a special permit for the one-day event.
“We, as a board, were bowled over by the license holder’s enthusiasm about the event and didn’t listen to the [police] chief’s concerns,” McMahon said. “Maybe guest bartenders were not invested in an event like that.” McMahon reiterated the chief’s concern that guests of the Improper Bostonian were drinking alcohol in their cars and carried it to the event in oversize handbags.
Bergeron said that people with bad behavior are the license-holder’s problem, not the town’s problem or the problem of people living in the area. “I don’t care if they’re drinking in cars, I don’t care if you had guest bartenders,” he said. “You’re supposed to see that they came in drunk and not serve them.”
Tuttle said there is no excuse “for the number of intoxicated people leaving that place that evening.” Whalen said that when he arrived with his wife, “two guys were relieving themselves against a boat in the parking lot.” He said police were called to handle “an intoxicated female causing problems at the front door,” and all the concerns he had expressed were happening, including crowds of people walking in the street.
“I thought [Ashmore and Grimaldi] had done a pretty good job when they took over [ownership of the Improper Bostonian last spring], but by the end of summer, there was some fallout,” Whalen said. “The Improper has been known far and wide as the party center of Dennisport for a long time. I got the impression that they were not keeping an eye on things as they should be.”
Whalen said he called Ashmore the day after the event, but his voice mailbox was full. It took several weeks for Whalen to reach Ashmore. “If people are going the extra mile to get you what you need, you’ve got to take care of the things you promised to take care of after the event, and that didn’t happen.”
Nicole Muller can be reached at nmuller@wickedlocal.com.