Nora Grace-Flood photo
Gotham Citi Cafe at 84 Orange St.
A Ninth Square club has been temporarily banned from serving alcohol after cops caught someone who was underaged drinking a Dirty Shirley on scene — and subsequently accused the nightclub’s owners of four counts of selling booze to minors amid months’ worth of other alleged violations.
Gotham Citi Cafe, a nightclub at 84 Orange St., now faces a suspended liquor permit license this Labor Day weekend.
The State Department of Consumer Protection Liquor Control Commission temporarily revoked the bar’s liquor permit — thereby pausing alcohol sales — between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2. Ownership has also paid a $8,750 fine after signing a settlement agreement with the state.
The commission cited six different violations in their suspension, such as illegal sales to minors, loitering on the property by minors, and conduct issues, including multiple brawls and disturbances.
The various incidents listed as reasons for the suspension took place in late 2022 and early 2023: Two counts of unlawful conduct were recorded on Oct. 15 of last year; four counts of selling to minors, nine counts of minors loitering, four counts of unlawful conduct, and one count of violating the club’s cafe permit by failing to serve food on scene were documented on Dec. 2; and four counts of unlawful conduct observed in two separate incidents on Jan. 14 and Jan. 28 of this year.
The bar’s long-time owner, Robert Bartolomeo, was not reachable for comment by this article’s time of publication.
Liquor Control agents and New Haven police officers caught several minors with fake ID’s drinking on the premises in December during an undercover inspection after a complaint submitted to the division and signed by a “concerned parent” written in September alleged that their 18-year-old child “got so drunk she ended up in the hospital by ambulance” at Gotham Citi one Friday night.
“She informed me that she and her friends were able to just walk up to the bar and get whatever they wanted. No one even checked their ID. I am very worried about this because it could have ended a lot worse,” the email reads.
None of the minors caught in December were reported intoxicated during the inspection, though at least four people under 21 were found with drinks ordered at the bar, including “Dirty Shirleys,” or shirley temples with vodka, vodka lemonades, and rum and cokes they allegedly purchased with fake ID’s from New York and New Jersey, and, in at least one case, a Quinnipiac University ID.
“Our goal is always compliance with businesses,” Connecticut Department of Consumer Protections Kaitlyn Kresselt told the Independent. “It there’s an incident, we work with the business to bring them into compliance. If there’s repeated incidents, that can lead to an investigation and either a hearing or a settlement.”
After reaching a settlement, as was done in the case of Gotham Citi Cafe, Kresselt says her agency meets with owners to select suspension dates that won’t disproportionately harm their business. “We’re trying to work with them, not tank them,” she said.
The official suspension document.
Clubs and bars better tighten up their ID checking, colleges and universities are back in session and young people are going to try to get served.