Evans restaurant Stay. Social Tap & Table is still waiting for its day in court, as Judge James Blanchard has delayed ruling on its alcohol advisement.
Blanchard presided over the hearing Thursday, after having signed the writ of a certiorari on Oct. 20, to review the Columbia County Board of Commissioner’s four to one decision on Oct. 4 to revoke Stay Social’s alcohol license.
Development Services Director Paul Scarbary notified owner Renee Hajek in September that her restaurant was in violation of Sec. 6-2 of the Columbia County Ordinance that requires alcohol licensees derive at least 50% of gross annual sales from prepared food rather than alcohol, based on information provided by the Development Authority of Columbia County.
Hajek’s counsel, P.J. Campanero, reiterated the argument to the judge that Stay. Social endured undue process, as the language in the ordinance is unclear regarding how annual gross sales and fiscal years are to be computed.
See the original and edited financials that started the debate: CLICK HERE
“My client was completely befuddled as to what the county required,” said Campanero, also arguing that the county’s decision violated equal protection, as Stay. Social was the only business the county audited to ensure compliance with the ordinance.
Campanero further posited that the commissioners were likely influenced by contacts from Columbia County citizens who disapproved of a drag show the café hosted in June, shortly after which Development Authority Director Robbie Bennett requested from Hajek the establishment’s financials, calling it a “recipe for arbitrary and selective enforcement.”
County attorneys argued, in turn, that the language used in the county ordinances regarding gross annual sales is not ambiguous, being the same language used by the State Legislature to regulate the lottery and tobacco.
The county further noted that the financial documents Hajek initially submitted to the Development Authority for January through December 2021—the only full calendar year Stay. Social has been in business since opening in August of 2020—showed gross alcohol sales of $421,490, and food sales of about $387,941. The second set of financial documents, however, showed essentially the same numbers, but with discounts and comps deducted from alcohol sales, but not from food sales.
Judge Blanchard ultimately opted to take under advisement the video footage from the initial Board of Commissioners meeting, the total of which is over an hour, and delayed a decision on the hearing after reviewing that footage.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
