AMHERST — The continued popularity of Scorpion Bowls with college students appears to have gotten a downtown restaurant in trouble again for allegedly serving minors the alcoholic concoction.
Amherst Police investigated two alleged underage drinking violations in the past month at Panda East, 103 North Pleasant St., both times related to the drink made from fruit juice, rum, vodka, gin and grenadine.
The Select Board will hold a second hearing on the restaurant’s liquor license in the Town Room at Town Hall at 6 p.m. Thursday.
In January, the Select Board suspended Panda East’s license for seven days following allegations it served 17 minors last fall. The restaurant was barred from serving alcohol Jan. 25 and 26, with the remaining five days held in abeyance for two years, if there were no additional violations.
Interim town manager Peter Hechenbleikner said it is possible that the board will not be as lenient this time, noting that with three alleged underage alcohol violations in a six-month period — involving at least 23 minors — revoking the liquor license would not be unprecedented.
In his letter to owner Isaac Chow, Hechenbleikner wrote: “These allegations, if proven, would constitute grounds for disciplinary action, including a written warning, suspension or revocation of your license.”
Police Chief Scott Livingstone said Wednesday that he would make a recommendation on what course of action to take only if the board asks for his advice.
A police report submitted to the Select Board shows that routine compliance checks were done at Panda East in early March, after social media sites continued to depict photographs of possible underage drinkers enjoying the Scorpion Bowls, which are large enough so that more than one person at a time can drink from them using straws.
But no violations were uncovered at that time, despite police employing underage people to see if waitstaff would provide them alcoholic drinks without asking for identifications.
The latest violations were found beginning March 27, when police took a report from the mother of a 17-year-old girl from Sharon who was visiting friends at the University of Massachusetts and had passed out on a PVTA bus the previous evening.
The mother told police her daughter, who vomited on the bus and needed to be brought by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, had been drinking a large amount of alcohol at a downtown restaurant, which she identified as Panda East.
Detective Sgt. Brian Daly wrote in his report on the incident that he spoke to the 11th-grade girl and learned she came to Amherst with three high school friends to visit an acquaintance at UMass, and they went out for the evening.
“All of the youths ordered Scorpion Bowls for one. Upon ordering, they were not asked for identification,” Daly wrote. “They were all provided Scorpion Bowls for one and they served a second round later, again without asking for proof of age.”
This prompted an April 8 sting operation led by Daly and Detective Michael Forcum in which they recruited four 20-year-olds to purchase Scorpion Bowls.
At 9 p.m., the officers observed from outside the establishment that there was a shift in its customer base.
Daly wrote: “The older folks who were eating dinner exited, and college-aged people began arriving in groups. Inside the restaurant, I could begin to see servers carrying scorpion bowls in both hands and to tables with individuals who appeared to be under 21.”
While the 20-year-olds were turned down by a waitress after they were unable to produce IDs, Daly and Forcum entered, and located two women at one table drinking from a Scorpion Bowl. Both appeared to be under 21 and “dressed to go out to the bars that night,” Daly wrote.
“This is consistent with the information that underaged individuals would go there to drink in case they couldn’t get into the bars,” Daly wrote.
One of the women had a legitimate, though expired, Massachusetts license, which may have been given to her by an older friend, while the other possessed a fake Rhode Island license showing she is 23, according to Daly.
This violation is similar to one uncovered last fall by Officer Nicholas Chandler that led to the original license suspension.
“I asked the customers as to how they acquired these beverages, lacking identification and/or proper age for service. The customers uniformly responded that no identifications were ever requested by staff and this has uniformly been in practice for some time,” Chandler wrote in a report dated Nov. 14.
Panda East manager Amy Wu said Wednesday that all questions about the incidents are being referred to her attorney, Kristi Bodin, whose law practice is in Amherst.
“I have no comment right now,” Wu said.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Bodin said she is reviewing documents related to the case to determine their veracity.
Bodin said she is also talking to her client about taking steps to prevent underage drinking, noting that Panda East does not condone serving minors.
“We will do what we can to prevent it ever, ever, ever happening again,” Bodin said.
In January, Wu, who had recently become the permanent manager of the restaurant, said she would improve policies, including having a class for all waitsfaff on looking for fake identifications.
“Now everybody is really, really checking IDs,” Wu said at the time.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
