Watering Hole Manager Says Our Story Surprised Him

We published a story earlier about some Atlantic County businesses being called out for COVID-19 violations. The manager says the story completely surprised him.

Randy Beane is the manager for the Watering Hole Cafe in Hamilton Township and says, to his knowledge, everything was OK after a state inspector made a visit a few Tuesday nights ago.

Beane says he lives in an apartment over the bar, and he and his girlfriend had come downstairs and were sitting alone in the closed bar at about 8pm on a Tuesday night. Beane says the bar was closed, and the only 3 vehicles in the parking lot belonged to he and his girlfriend.

Beane told me that the inspector questioned the pair, and Beane was even able to provide a receipt for the beer they were drinking - as it did not come from the bar. He had purchased it elsewhere - all the bar's liquor was behind lock and key. Beane said he even provided the state representative with proof he lived upstairs.

Beane says when the man was leaving he told Beane, "Don't worry about it." He left behind no citations or fines.

Meanwhile, the State Attorney General provided this information in a news release issued yesterday:

AG Grewal announced that the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) this week issued charges seeking to suspend for 10 days the liquor license of an Atlantic County bar, the Watering Hole Café in Hamilton, for allowing patrons to drink on premises in violation of COVID-19 emergency orders.'

Our original story can be found here.