A Searcy business, the Rock House, has become the city's first restaurant to obtain an alcoholic beverage permit.
The White County city, with almost 24,000 residents, already had four private clubs that could legally serve alcohol, but none of them are traditional restaurants. They are two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, Searcy Country Club and an Elks Lodge.
White County is one of 35 dry counties in Arkansas, meaning the public sale of alcohol is forbidden.
The board of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division approved the permit request after a hearing Wednesday for the Rock House on East Beebe Capps Expressway.
During the same meeting, the board denied a similar request by El Almacen on East Race Avenue in Searcy. The restaurant can appeal the decision to a circuit court in either White County or Pulaski County.
State law allows restaurants in dry counties to get such permits if the business is legally considered a private club.
Both applications had been denied previously by the division's director, Mary Robin Casteel. She said Thursday that state law forbids the director from approving applications if any objections are filed by a public official such as an alderman or sheriff. Many objections were filed with the state agency, including some from public officials. Restaurants can then appeal to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, as these two did.
Casteel also has denied a permit to a third Searcy restaurant, Coulton's. It will take its application to the board in September or August, she said.
Paragould attorney Harry Truman Moore, who represented El Almacen and the Rock House restaurants, explained to the board how the notices of permit requests were posted by the businesses.
Board Chairman Dan Greenberg said Thursday that the attorney contended El Almacen's situation was identical to the Rock House's.
In the Rock House case, Greenberg said, testimony was presented to show that the restaurant had placed a notice of its application in a location other than the restaurant entrance on the advice of a division agent. State regulations require that the notice be placed in the entrance, he said. Because the restaurant acted on an agent's advice, though, the board went ahead and approved the Rock House permit.
Greenberg said he doesn't think the Rock House presented such testimony about the sign's location. But he said he plans to listen to an audio recording of the meeting to determine "if the two situations were identical."
"If they were, I'll move for reconsideration," he said.
Moore said there is a picture showing an enforcement agent beside "the sign where she said [to] put it" at El Almacen.
The sign's location had not previously been an issue, Moore said.
Asked if El Almacen plans to appeal the denial, Moore said there would be no decision on that until he finds out if the board agrees to reconsider the matter.
State Desk on 08/18/2017