Restaurant owner notified of denied license through local publication, waiting for official City notification.
UPDATE (June 11, 2013): Kirkwood Bar and Grill has ‘officially’ closed
After its temporary liquor license was put in front of the city’s License Review Board in December, Kirkwood Bar and Grill will not be granted a liquor license in 2012, East Atlanta Patch first reported.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed denied the controversial Kirkwood restaurant’s liquor license application after “carefully considering neighborhood concerns that have been brought to him,” Sonji Jacobs Dade, Reed’s spokeswoman told East Atlanta Patch.
David Johnson, owner of the restaurant at 1963 Hosea Williams Dr. SE, was first made aware of the Mayor’s decision when he was contacted by Patch for an interview.
Johnson argued that complaints from the neighborhood of him violating city codes governing his temporary liquor license were made only because he is black and that racists have been trying to run him out of Kirkwood.
Tweets were sent from Kirkwood Bar & Grill’s Twitter account touting the complaining neighbors as racists.
Johnson was not immediately available for comment.
East Atlanta Patch has more details here.
5 Responses
Yay! Just yay!
Been following this story from afar for a while. When liquor licenses are granted, the owner has no responsibility to tell the truth about things like opening hours, live music, etc. So, the license is granted and then the neighbors have no recourse.
This is just like the problem with have in Virginia Highland with “Loca Luna” (occasional gunfire). Or, a bit further out, there’s “Room Service Lounge” (a couple murders-usually people arguing about who gets to sit in the ‘VIP’ section.
Bar owners need to be accountable for what they tell the liquor board and the other people. Otherwise, there is really no reason for the liquor board to exist. And, we will keep having these very wild places located in areas that don’t want them.
I personally feel that if he had taken to the time to deliver a product that complimented the surrounding area and it’s citizens then he probably wouldn’t have had so many problems as he did. I like Kirkwood, I’ve passed through there quite often to know the residents like certain things. And just from looking at the surrounding area I can tell that this is not the place for a Mansion Elan Annex or what-have-you. I highly doubt the people would have cared that he was black if he had paid attention to what the community expected of his establishment.
Now, did race play in part in some of the resident’s decisions to not want his establishment there? I’m not going to act like there is no truth to that. But to expound on my earlier point, this is not the kind of place for this type of establishment. Even the major night clubs in the metro have a large white/asian/hispanic (i.e. rowdiness knows no color) following, and some of the locals of those particular areas have filed complaints to no avail.
This was ALL about race!
Emma, you’re clearly clueless about the situation, the ‘restaurant’ itself, and the neighborhood.
Le Petite Marche, a minority owned business, thrives on the exact same block.
Sorry to muddy the waters of your reverse racism fantasy, but you just don’t know what you’re talking about.