Dennis Port nightclub slapped with 1-day suspension

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SOUTH DENNIS — The Improper Bostonian will be opening a day late on the Memorial Day weekend kick-off to the 2015 summer season as a penalty for overserving alcohol to customers and failing to keep order among patrons as they left the bar, frequently in an impaired condition.

During a three-hour hearing held by selectmen Thursday, local police officers testified that the good intentions of owner Christopher Grimaldi and his staff didn’t follow through to performance as last summer progressed.

As a penalty, selectmen ordered the Dennis Port hot spot to serve a one-day liquor license suspension on May 22, 2015, the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend.

Grimaldi won’t be opening at all next season until he produces a security plan that wins the approval of both the police chief and the town’s selectmen.

There was talk of requiring police details on the weekends, but selectmen will first have to change a policy that prohibits police details at liquor establishments.

The Improper Bostonian operates in a century-old barn. It takes up the main level and basement area and has four bars. It is allowed, under its occupancy permit, to have 500 patrons inside at once.

According to Police Chief Michael Whalen, his resources are being sapped by the bar on the weekends and holidays.

“We’re spending an inordinate amount of time there,” said Whalen, adding that the bar starts the season well, then employees “lose focus.”

In mid-August, police found a man, who was drunk, standing in the middle of the road outside the bar with one shoe on. Down the street, they found the man’s two drunken companions. The woman was passed out in some bushes, while the man attempted to carry her.

The Labor Day weekend proved to be the grand finale, with a man sustaining a head injury falling up some stairs, a parking lot brawl that involved a bouncer punching a patron and police having to threaten some drunken patrons with their stun guns to get the scene under control. Police from Harwich had to be called in to assist.

That weekend, police logged 14 hours at the Improper and two hours total at four other similar bars, the police chief said. Whalen suggested reducing the number of patrons allowed in the bar, saying 500 was too many for the staff to keep track of.

Happy hours, featuring Jim Plunkett, are particularly troublesome at the Dennis Port bar. “When happy hour lets out, it’s a rambunctious crowd,” testified police Sgt. Cleve Daniels. “Clearly from my experience there are some pretty impaired people coming out of there.”

Daniels described the revelers “ripping off their clothes and jumping on the hoods of cars.”

Grimaldi told selectmen he was completely taken by surprise when he received an email from Chief Whalen on Labor Day weekend, complaining about problems at his business. Grimaldi, who lives in Norton, comes to the Cape for a few summer weekends but essentially relies on his managers to oversee the operation.

Selectman Wayne Bergeron, who chaired the hearing, was all for taking disciplinary action against the bar that would “get their attention.” He suggested suspending the license for two days on Memorial Day weekend.

Selectmen Alan Tuttle and John Terrio, the other two board members present for the hearing, argued a two-day closure on a big holiday weekend was too harsh. “If you take away the holiday weekend, you take away the season,” Tuttle said.

Neighbor June Summers submitted written comments for Thursday’s hearing, which included complaints about the appearance of the bar property, from the “tacky rainbow sign in the front” to piles of paint cans and boat parts lying near a dumpster. Rusty poles, remnants of a volleyball tourney held two years ago, are still standing, Summers noted.

“We hope the Oct. 9 meeting will end this fiasco once and for all,” the letter ended. While Summers and her husband, Herb, attended the hearing, they refrained from commenting and left before it concluded.

Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @chrislegereCCT.