A downtown Meadville restaurant was cited last month by the Pennsylvania State Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, according to a press release issued Wednesday.
Margarita King, 251 Chestnut St., was cited for allegedly failing to adhere to additional restrictions placed on the restaurant’s liquor license when the license was renewed in an agreement with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) in 2020. The alleged violations occurred April 12 and April 24.
The restrictions imposed in the PLCB agreement remained in effect when the bar was subsequently sold and then eventually reopened in 2024 as Margarita King.
The restrictions came about following a series of incidents resulting in criminal charges for patrons of Chestnut Street Pub, most notably an August 2019 brawl that occurred just after the bar’s normal 2 a.m. closing time and involved numerous people who had been at the bar, according to Meadville Police Department. Four people involved in the melee eventually faced charges. One man was stabbed and a responding city police officer suffered a serious injury from broken glass when several of the large front windows of a business directly across the street were broken in the fight.
Among the numerous conditions are requirements for standard alcohol management training as well as prohibitions on certain large containers of alcoholic beverages and a ban on alcohol being served after 11:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:30 p.m. on other days. The agreement also requires the presence of a security guard at night and numerous security cameras both inside and out and requires the bar to share its security video with city police upon request.
The charges will be brought before an administrative law judge who has the authority to impose penalties ranging from $50 to $1,000 for minor offenses and up to $5,000 for more serious offenses.
In addition, the judge can also impose a license suspension or revocation of the license based on the severity of the charges. The judge can additionally mandate training for the licensee in an effort to educate them on the requirements of being a licensee.
Margarita King was the only Crawford County establishment cited by Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement officers in June.