Business & Tech

Controversial Hampden Liquor Store Wants Restrictions Dropped

The owners of Red Fish Liquors want the Baltimore Board of Liquor Commissioners to drop restrictions on its liquor license.

A controversial Hampden liquor store is trying to have restrictions in its license removed, despite community opposition.

, located at 4001 Falls Road, is scheduled to go before the Baltimore Board of Liquor Commissioners on Thursday. The restrictions include regulating the size of liquor bottles it can sell.

"They’re going to try to get all the restrictions removed so they can be cheap booze merchants," said George Peters, a Hampden Community Council board member. 

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The store was granted a license in November 2009, despite the objections of the Hampden Community Council and Hampden Village Merchants Association, who argued there were already enough liquor stores in the community.

The board granted the store a license, but as a compromise prevented the store from having Keno at the store, and banned the sale of liquor bottles less than a pint in size and individual beers—other than 22 ounce bottles that have to cost at least $4.

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However, the community contested the renewal of the license a year later because the store—then owned by Kay Lee and Vincent Cox—had violated those terms by selling prohibited items such as 40-ounce beers for $3.50, according to liquor license records.

At that time the liquor board called for a public hearing in April 2010 and sided with the community, and suspended the store’s license for six months.

But in June 2010, the board ruled that the store could reopen when a transfer was complete to the new license holders, Susan Rhee and Boksun Lee, who currently own the store.

The Hampden Community Council filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court to overturn the liquor board’s decision to transfer the license to the new owners, but it was dismissed.

A reporter tried to reach Rhee for comment on this story. When Rhee was reached via her cell phone, she said she wasn’t able to discuss the matter and to call back later.

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