Liquor licensing under tougher scrutiny

The rejection last week of a tavern licence for what was meant to be one of the draw-card venues in the revitalised Northbridge has been cited as evidence of a more rigorous application process and increased police intervention in licencing decisons.

Prominent Perth restaurateur Nic Trimboli had planned to open a fine dining venue and wine bar as part of the East Perth Redevelopment Authority’s William Street revitalisation, adding the prospectively named ‘The Latin’ to his portfolio of restaurants which includes Leederville’s Duende and Perth’s Balthazar.

But Liquor Licensing director Barry Sargeant rejected the application citing inadequate objective evidence that The Latin would meet public interest – one of the main criteria in the reformed licensing act.

While it is possible to appeal decisions made by Liquor Licensing with the Liquor Commission, Mr Trimboli said he was not planning to appeal the decision.

Liquor licensing expert and Lavan Legal partner Dan Mossenson said the state’s liquor licensing laws are multi-faceted and Mr Sargeant’s expectations of application quality seem to have increased in the last six months.

“As more and more licences have been granted and as more and more opposition has been mounted from both the department of health and police, in a balanced way the director is now evaluating both sides to the equation,” he said.

“The ultimate determinant is this so-called public interest test … and it takes into account all aspects, including the harm and ill-health aspect, the noise and disturbance aspect, the amenity issue, and the objects provisions in the act.”

Specialist lawyer John Prior agreed and said since the reforms to the act in 2007 it is almost inevitable that the health department and the police service will intervene in applications for tavern, nightclub, hotel and liquor store licences because they are associated with high levels of risk.

The increased standard has not meant the end of tavern licence approvals; Bar One owner Steve Scaffidi opened his grill house-cum-bistro Sentinel in Perth’s CBD last month under a tavern licence, but said getting a licence is now a much more detailed process.

He spent a significant amount of money and time applying for Sentinel’s licence and lobbied both the health department and police to prove having a tavern licence would not cause undue health impacts for consumers.

So with all the hoopla involved in attaining a tavern licence, what is the attraction for restaurant owners?

According to Mr Scaffidi, it is the flexibility of being able to host functions like cocktail parties for patrons that is the clincher, and he questioned the definition of an establishment by its licence.

“I don’t want to complicate the liquor licensing any further by introducing another licence, but I think tavern is just a bad word. Of course there should be a small bar licence for small places, and club licences, but ‘tavern licence’, it is not applicable to someone like me. It conjures up a pub,” he said.

“I just wonder if there is a licence that is missing within the liquor licensing division that needs to be applicable to places like Sentinel and The Latin.”

In the application for The Latin’s licence, it had likened its prospective clientele, conditioning and mode of operation to that of other restaurants operating with a tavern licence like Must Wine Bar in Margaret River.

“The tenor of these licences, in terms of conditioning and mode of operation, provides a more relevant comparison than Tavern licences in a generic sense,” the application said.

Mr Prior said in the last 12 months people within the hospitality industry were increasingly frustrated by the lack of merit-based intervention by police and the health department.

He suggested applicants needed to be assessed on their experience in the industry, track record with establishments and what they plan to do with new sites as well as judged on the type of licence they are applying for and pointed to tavern-licensed venues like Nine Marys and South Perth’s Raffles to show venues that have operations outside the traditional image of a tavern.