DANVERS — Selectmen revoked the Crab House's liquor license last night despite restaurant manager Sally Loh's tearful protests that the business had reopened and that all the publicity the board generated had left a bad taste in patrons' mouths.
Selectman Gardner Trask, who moved to revoke the license, said the Crab House has been closed more than it has been open over the past three years. Loh has the right to appeal the decision to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, Trask said.
"Each time you want me to open a door, and each time you put a gate in front of my restaurant," said a tearful Loh, who said that all her numerous appearances before selectmen, the town's licensing board, to explain herself have kept customers at bay. "If you let me alone, I think I can do fine," she said. "Do you read the newspaper? Do you think they (the stories) are helping me or hurting me?"
At one point, she said: "You are doing a good job closing the restaurant."
Selectman Mike Powers called the accusation "preposterous."
"I take major exception to the fact this restaurant might close because of the function of this board," Powers said. "Any failure of the operation rests with you."
"For someone to say I was anti-business, I would take exception to that," said Dan Bennett, who runs his own real estate office in town.
Selectman Bill Clark, a small-business man who runs a farm, said the board has been trying to answer a question many residents have been asking for months: "What is going on at the Crab House?"
Selectmen called last night's public hearing over concerns the liquor license held by Evergreen Restaurant Group Inc., doing business as the Crab House at 180 Endicott St., was not being used.
Selectmen were concerned that the highly visible restaurant across from the Liberty Tree Mall was not serving liquor much since transforming from the New Asia Chinese restaurant to the Crab House Asian fusion eatery in January 2006.
With only about 45 liquor licenses in town, they are valuable assets, and the board wants to police "pocket licenses," where a business might hold a liquor license just to sell it. They were concerned Loh had not told the town when the Crab House was closed, as it was required to do, and the restaurant had been shut for much of the summer. Police had been checking on it routinely in August and September.
Selectmen were not concerned about the Crab House's food service, but the serving of alcoholic beverages. The restaurant reopened in early November with a revamped bar menu of steak tips and pasta.
Last night, Clark alluded to the wisdom of former selectmen Chairman Stan Svensson, who told Loh in January 2007: "Use it or lose it." Svensson is no longer on the board, but some selectmen said their long history with Loh was a factor in their decision.
"Having been around the block," Powers said when asked by selectmen Chairman Keith Lucy for comment, "I have no further questions."
What may have done in the Crab House's license was Loh's failure to produce receipts of liquor purchases from the past three, six, nine and 12 months that Clark had requested.
Loh, saying English is her second language, said she had not received a registered letter sent to her in Somerville asking her for the records, so she did not bring them. Her promise to produce them "tomorrow" did not sway the board.
Bennett, for one, said he might have voted the other way if Loh had produced the liquor receipts.
Trask said he had swung by Loh's Somerville location and found it had closed.
"Your store is closed. There are gas ranges and dishwashers and booths piled on top of each other," said Trask, who said he had peered in the window. He said Somerville officials were also unaware of the restaurant's status.
Loh blamed two years of construction on Somerville Avenue for the closure and said the city knew of it.
"I've also been very patient here," said Lucy, who was the only one to vote against the revocation. "It's going to be a difficult stretch to try again."
After meeting with Loh in October, the board scheduled last night's public hearing. The Crab House managed to win an entertainment license in the meantime, but it was later learned the restaurant, like others, would need a special permit.
Loh, who has been in the restaurant business for 30 years and at one point ran five New Asia restaurants, told the board she had run into financial difficulties several years ago during renovations. Uncertainty about the liquor license had not helped.
"Then you people have a hearing like this, and I'm in the newspaper," Loh said.
"I think we would all be better served if there was a New Asia in Danvers than a Crab House," Lucy said.
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