Salvatori’s Approved For Wine Permit, Steuby’s Gets OK For Transfer Of License
Salvatori’s Approved For Wine Permit, Steuby’s Gets OK For Transfer Of License
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Salvatori’s Approved For Wine Permit, Steuby’s Gets OK For Transfer Of LicenseTwo new alcohol permits and a transfer of ownership of another one were given a favorable recommendation Thursday by the Alcohol Tobacco Commission of Kosciusko County.
The county board is a recommending body to the state. The state will need to give final approvals for all the licenses.
Known as Stacy’s Restaurant and Lounge, 309 S. Main St., Leesburg, for 50 years, the business has changed hands.
309 Main LLC, doing business as (dba) Steuby’s, was before the commission Thursday for the transfer of the beer, wine and liquor restaurant license.
Steuart Wysong, managing member of the company, said the principle nature of the business will be a fine dining restaurant.
Asked by Indiana State Excise Officer April Tackett to explain to the commission about the transfer, Wysong said, “We are purchasing an existing - what was there for 50 years - and we’re going to carry on the same type of tradition with the beer, wine and liquor complimenting our food.”
Tackett asked if it would still be a restaurant and a bar where there will be a family room and a bar room. Wysong said, at this point, they have separated it off so they could have a family area.
Commission President Elim Smith asked about a room in the back to the left and if it were still there. Wysong said it was still there and they were opening that up with a hostess at the door with limited access. Family dining will be to the right after a person walks in the front door, he said. Smith asked again about the room to the left and Wysong said it was all open now.
Smith then asked Tackett if minors could go into that room because it’s off the main dining room.
“The only way that they would be able to have family if they wanted to back there is if they could get to the restroom without going through the bar room. So it depends on how it’s partitioned off,” she said.
Wysong asked, if they put railing around the bar area, if they could family seating in the main area as well.
“So, hypothetically, if you have the bar that just goes straight across, then you’ve got the couple bar stools that you have there, if you put that railing right behind the bar stools, then the only place you would have to be 21 is to sit at the bar stools. So that’s what we call the limited separation,” Tackett explained.
To qualify for limited separation, she said they would have to do at least $200,000 in food sales a year. As a fine dining establishment, she said she would hope they would do that well.
“We are banking on that,” Wysong said.
Tackett told him they could talk about the family dining and rules when she goes in to do the inspection.
Wysong said there’s some renovation left to do, but they hope to be open in July.
Commission member Dan Wood made a motion to approve the transfer, member Alan Alderfer seconded it and the motion passed 4-0.
Tackett told Wysong to contact her for the final inspection before he orders any alcohol.
Salvatori’s Warsaw LLC, dba Salvatori’s, 3605 Commerce Drive, Warsaw, sought a new wine retailer license for the full-service restaurant.
Jeremy McClain, owner/partner of Salvatori’s, explained, “This new permit is intended to allow us to sell wine to compliment our food offerings. Wine for us is about 11% of our sales, about 89% will be food we anticipate. We hope it will be closer to 15%, but 11-12% of our sales mix will be wine.”
Smith asked if they didn’t need a full license for beer, wine and liquor.
“We try to be as family-friendly as possible. We have five other locations. We have a full bar in two of those locations, so we do serve liquor in two of those locations. But the other ones we only serve beer and wine,” McClain said. “Long-term, we would love to be able to serve beer, but we don’t have any ambitions to serve liquor. It just brings another element that we don’t want to have to manage.”
Alderfer asked if they had a training program for responsible alcohol service and McClain said they do. Anyone who appears to be under 40 needs to be ID’d before service is initiated.
Tackett asked if the inside of Salvatori’s was finished enough for the inspection. McClain said it was and they anticipated all other inspections would occur Monday. He said the entire floor plan was ready for inspection, but there were a couple pieces of stainless steel that needed to be added to the kitchen.
There were no remonstrators against the new permit. Alderfer made a motion to approve the license, Wood seconded it and it was approved 4-0.
The Leesburg Stop ‘N’ Go gas station and convenience store, 100 N. Main St., Leesburg, was approved for a new beer and wine grocery store dealer permit.
Owner Gurbander Singh said the Leesburg gas station was his third business, with his other two being in New Haven and Pierceton. He’s owned the Leesburg station for two years, and said it did not have a license previously.
Alderfer asked Singh if his other gas stations sold alcohol and Singh said the one in Pierceton does. His store also has a training program for employees on selling alcohol and IDs of those purchasing alcohol must be scanned before the alcohol can be purchased.
There were no remonstrators against the new permit for Leesburg Petro Corp. dba as Leesburg Stop ‘N’ Go.
A new application for a beer, wine and liquor riverfront district license for Blank Slate LLC, 105 W. Main St., Syracuse, was continued for the second time to the June 1 meeting. The application was on the commission’s agenda for April, but they continued it because the business did not post its orange-colored alcohol sales notification sign for the public.
Attorney Jack Birch, representing the company, requested Thursday the application be continued for another month.
After the meeting, Tackett said the business failed to post the notification sign again. The sign must be posted at least 10 days before the public hearing on the license.
Licenses without any violations renewed by the board were:
• Service Liquors Inc., dba Service Liquors, 108 S. Lake St., Warsaw, beer, wine and liquor package store.
• Freeland Enterprises Inc., dba Pizza Hut, 502 N. Detroit St., Warsaw, beer and wine restaurant.
• RT Michiana Franchise LLC, dba Ruby Tuesday #7368, 3308 E. Center St., Warsaw, beer, wine and liquor restaurant.
• Scott’s Package Liquors Inc., dba Pierceton Discount Liquors, 101 S. First St., Pierceton, beer, wine and liquor package store.
• Meijer Stores Limited Partnership, dba Meijer Store #267, 1200 Lake City Hwy., Warsaw, beer, wine and liquor drug store.
