“A disgrace,” Councilman Art Murphy says of the morning-after conditions on the sidewalk alongside Ashes.
Led by Councilman Art Murphy, the Red Bank Borough Council last came down with both feet on Ashes Cigar Club on Broad Street, refusing to renew the restaurant’s liquor license over a host of maintenance and other issues.
Out of patience, Murphy led the revolt against the Ashes renewal.
What appeared at first to be a routine renewal of three liquor licenses turned into a surprising rejection of Ashes after Councilman Mike DuPont noted that it was his understanding that “the borough is having some issues with Ashes” and asked if the renewal shouldn’t be tabled until those matters were resolved.
The rejection came despite Mayor Pasquale Menna’s caution that it would be best for the council to move ahead with the license approval while issues of possible building code violations at the eatery are under investigation.
The rejection movement was led by Murphy, who is the liaison to the police department. He said the borough “has been over there quite a bit” in the person of code enforcers and building inspectors, one of whom was out on a Sunday morning taking photos of discarded beer bottles and cigars left on the sidewalks of Broad and Mechanic streets.
“It’s a disgrace,” Murphy told redbankgreen. “They don’t clean the sidewalks, they don’t clean the tables. It’s nasty.”
He added that a renewal of the license would be a slap at the downtown businesses that strive to maintain their properties and the sidewalks in front of them.
In February, the borough raided Ashes around midnight on a busy weekend and shut down the upstairs bar, where the crowd was said to exceed capacity by at least 100 persons. The business was cited for other violations as well, including turning a pantry into a DJ booth, running television wires through a fire exit, penetrating a fire-rated stairway, installing a door that opened in the wrong direction and using open candles.
The vote to renew the license garnered yes votes from councilwomen Sharon Lee and Grace Cangemi. Murphy, DuPont and Kathleen Horgan voted no, and new member James Giannell abstained.
The denial could prove little more than an exercise in council frustration, however. Borough Attorney Ken Pringle told redbankgreen afterward that the business can appeal to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency, and that such appeals are routinely granted.
“It would take an extraordinary reason for the ABC not to renew,” Pringle said. “The council didn’t vote to revoke, it simply didn’t renew.”
Should the ABC reinstate the license, the borough, in turn, could appeal, he said.
“But even then, you have to show some pretty extraordinary circumstances, almost rising to the level of revocation,” Pringle said.
