The Bare Facts

All throughout last century there have been battles in communities about liquor. In the early part of the 1900’s there was a long, vocal battle to “end the demon of rum” and stop people from drinking. Fortunes were ruined and families were harmed and children starved as a result of fathers drinking away their wages. Women drank too, but it was not as obvious or perhaps as often. One of the most famous posters of the Prohibition time period stated, “Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine!”

Another issue that has brought a lot of debate regards allowing nudity in restaurants, and particularly nude dancing. In Mt. Ephraim back in the 1980’s the Fantasy Show Bar on Black Horse Pike fought the local authorities by bringing a federal lawsuit concerning the right to present nude dancers. The owners at that time took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the business.

Most communities have some regulations and licensing as to who can serve liquor and when as well as the usual 21 year old age minimum. Licenses are sold to a limited number of locations; others are able to receive licenses to BYOB – allow the patrons to Bring their own bottle.

Well, time has passed and that restaurant is under new ownership now with a new name: Jersey Girls Gentlemen’s Cabaret. But it seems that the chutzpah carries on. In this case, Jersey Girls applied to have a license for BYOB, but it was not granted. In fact, they were told that it would not ever be granted to them. So, while the club did retain a lawyer and begin the federal lawsuit to get it allowed, it seems that they just went ahead and let people BYOB anyway. They might even on some occasions have advertised that it was all right to do so. Again and again, Gregorio Russo, the operator of Jersey Girls was cited for allowing this to happen. He was fined $1200 for six “willful violations” of the BYOB rule on July 13, 2011. The prosecutor dropped the charges regarding the advertising.

Jersey Girls had planned to bring a federal suit in order to win the BYOB licensing, but now has voluntarily dropped the lawsuit. It seems that their impatience with the long wait did not pay off the way their predecessors’ due process did.