Posted on: Friday, December 21, 2001

Liquor panel changes position

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Rycroft Street restaurant that had a liquor license request rejected nearly two years ago won preliminary approval yesterday on a new application.

The Honolulu Liquor Commission voted 5-0 to send to a public hearing a license request by Dong Baek Restaurant. The hearing is expected to be held within the next six weeks.

The unanimous approval was a turnaround from the commission's 4-0 vote in February 2000 to deny a similar application. At that hearing, restaurant neighbors strongly opposed the license and complained about noise, traffic and security problems that occurred while the restaurant was under a temporary license.

But Dong Baek attorney Mark Kawata told the commission yesterday that the ownership of the restaurant has changed, and so have the plans for the license. Two years ago, the then-restaurant owners wanted to sell liquor in a karaoke room, which was the source of the noise, he said.

Kawata said that since the Jung Bup Sa Buddhist Temple acquired the property, the karaoke room has been converted to a church room. The restaurant, which is being leased to Song Soo Han by the temple, is about half the size of the old establishment and there are no plans for any loud music, he said.

No one testified at yesterday's preliminary hearing and Kawata acknowledged that he has not told residents near the restaurant of the license application.

Commission Chairman John Spierling advised Kawata to meet with the Ala Moana-Kaka'ako Neighborhood Board, which opposed the first application, to discuss the new application. "I would hope that you keep a relationship with the neighborhood board, and I would tell your client you'll save yourself a lot of problems," Spierling said.

In other action yesterday, the commission found All Star Cafe guilty of one count of allowing a person under 21 to drink alcohol. Restaurant owner, All Star Hawaii, was fined $500.

Restaurant officials yesterday admitted that a 19-year-old man was allowed in the establishment and did drink a beer on June 10. But they claimed that they did not know that the man, Adrian Mols, used a California driver's license that did not belong to him.

Several commissioners agreed that the picture on the license resembled Mols, but the panel found the restaurant guilty.