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Restaurant violated agreement with city

County fines Los Cabos for serving minor, other violations

Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006

The owner of College Park’s Los Cabos restaurant met with the City Council last week, apologizing for violating the city’s property use agreement and promising to cease nightclub-style events.

The Prince George’s County Liquor Board fined the restaurant $5,000 after board representatives issued citations during the night of March 11. The charges included collecting a cover charge and serving alcohol to a 20-year-old woman, said Los Cabos lawyer Brian Kotzker.

Additionally, the Liquor Board accused the restaurant of failing to serve food during the promotion, although Los Cabos owner Edgar Brambila said food would have been sold to anyone who asked.

Brambila said he has taken a more active role in the restaurant’s day-to-day business since the incident, taking steps to avoid a suspended or revoked liquor license. Brambila, a Charlotte, N.C., resident, said he travels to College Park every three weeks to ensure Los Cabos is operating in accordance with the city’s property use agreement, which lays out what College Park officials hope to see – and not see – at a restaurant.

During the time of the violations, Brambila said his brother, Hector, was managing the restaurant.

‘‘I am very sorry and very embarrassed,” Brambila said to the council at an Aug. 2 work session. ‘‘It’s a privilege to have a liquor license, and the embarrassing part is that I am a man of my word. ... I’m doing everything in my power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Servers at Los Cabos, which opened in College Park last fall, recently received alcohol service training – which included how to identify fake ID cards – from a ‘‘certified expert,” Brambila said.

Citing Brambila’s failure to appear at a council meeting in 2005 – an absence Kotzker said was his fault – College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman urged Brambila to stay in touch with the city and establish ties in the community.

‘‘If I recall, we had problems having much of an opportunity to dialogue with this establishment about the property use agreement,” Brayman said.

City Attorney Suellen Ferguson said the property use agreement, which was approved unanimously by the council in June 2005, clearly prohibits Los Cabos from using outside promoters.

When Los Cabos appeals to the city for a recommendation for a liquor license renewal in March 2007, Brayman said he doesn’t want an ‘‘icy relationship” to stand in the way of the city’s support for the renewal.

‘‘I would hate for us to be able to look at things in the future less than objectively,” he said.

Ferguson and Jeannie Ripley, College Park’s code enforcement supervisor, said the restaurant had several city code violations. Ripley said promotional signs had stayed up too long and a large flowerpot was blocking a side exit in the restaurant, a violation reported by concerned residents.

Councilman Dave Milligan (Dist. 1) said he was disappointed by Los Cabos’ violations, but encouraged by Brambila’s proactive response.

‘‘[Brambila] presented a family type restaurant to us, and those were not family-type activities,” Milligan said, referring to a dance area, bouncers and DJs brought to Los Cabos last March.

Despite taking measures to prohibit more nightclub events, Brambila said selling alcohol in a college town – with dozens of University of Maryland students coming in every night – has been a challenge.

‘‘The odds are against us,” he said, emphasizing it is inevitable that underage drinkers will try to buy alcohol. Sifting through fake licenses and IDs, Brambila said, was a daunting task for managers and busy servers.

‘‘It’s a parade of underage drinkers.”

E-mail Dennis Carter at dcarter@gazette.net.