Liquor License

Cinelli's Country House Restaurant, the famous Cherry Hill establishment that collapsed into bankruptcy three years ago, is expected to succumb to the bulldozer by the end of the summer. Rouse & Associates, the development firm that bought the property in December for $2.4 million, has received a demolition permit from the township and plans to raze the building by late August or early September, according to Rouse regional partner Robert Heimerl. Rouse plans to build a $20 million 12- to 15-story office building on the site, at Route 38 and Haddonfield Road.

If it had just been the drug sales in his bar, in which his own workers face charges, Dennis Vaughn might have had a better chance of avoiding a suspension of his liquor license. But when the police charged that a bartender, a waitress and a regular customer were stashing cocaine and methamphetamine in the walk-in refrigerator of the Pennsauken Beef & Beer, that just about finished things off. After a three-month investigation and a Nov. 10 police raid on the bar at the Pennsauken Mart, the Township Committee voted last week to suspend the liquor license at the Beef & Beer for 12 months.

Washington Township Councilman Daniel Mangini put it this way: "There are a lot of dollars at stake in this one. " A million dollars, according to testimony offered Wednesday by Thomas Hedenberg, a builder and restaurant owner who was conditionally granted and then denied a liquor-license renewal by the Township Council. Hedenberg appealed that denial to the state's Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC) last month and an administrative law judge heard six hours of testimony Wednesday from Hedenberg and council members.

The Voorhees Township Committee last night renewed the liquor license for the Coliseum - the bar where Flyers star goalie Pelle Lindbergh drank before his fatal car crash - despite recent charges by the state that the bar employed a person with a criminal record and failed to disclose the true ownership of the bar. Township solicitor Frank Thatcher said the committee lacked "sufficient, independent evidence" not to renew the license even though...

A good bottle of wine can cost $20. Fine champagne will run $70. Trendy imported beers such as Corona or Dock Street go for $5 a six-pack. In Voorhees Township, the price for the privilege to hawk those wares is $310,000 - but there are no takers. In three bidding periods, the most recent of which expired Monday at the Township Committee meeting, the township did not receive any complete bids for the Class D liquor license. Now, township officials say they will not re-bid the license until next year at the earliest.

A liquor license likely will be the final piece that completes the largest shopping center in Washington Township. On April 26, the township will open bids for two liquor licenses. One of the licenses likely will be bought by the Brunswick Corp. of Chicago for its proposed 40-lane bowling center, which will be built next to the Cross Keys Commons shopping center in the eastern part of the township. The other license probably will be bought by a local liquor store. The bowling center is the second major recreational tenant for the shopping center, already under construction on the Black Horse Pike.

John Stavros, president of Evesham's venerable Olga's Diner, is one of many township business owners who have complained about the way township officials have dealt with distributing the available liquor licenses. Now, Stavros has moved past the complaining stage. Stavros, whose diner has been a staple at the Marlton Circle for 30 years, has told township officials he will no longer sponsor local groups, such as wrestling clubs, schools and churches. "We deeply regret that we must decline these requests (for sponsorships or baked goods)

The Township Council last night decided to postpone a vote on whether to approve the transfer of a retail liquor license from the owners of the Medford Village Resort & Country Club to the club's general manager. The council is awaiting the results of a background check by the FBI on Larry Wizeman, general manager of the club, said Mayor Andrew P. Korab. Officials said they expected to have the report in time to possibly make a decision on the transfer at the council's March 20 meeting.

The liquor license shared by two restaurants and a catering hall in the massive Main Street complex will be up for grabs later this month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden. In a hearing set for May 27, Main Street Beverage Inc. - the bankrupt company owned by Main Street developer John B. Canuso - will auction off the liquor license currently used by the Main Street Pub, Catelli's Restaurant and the Mansion. Anyone can bid for the license, which means the three businesses have no guarantee that they still will be able to serve liquor.

Four seats will be contested in this fall's Cherry Hill township council race, with three incumbents vying to keep their spots on the all-Democratic panel. Council President David Fleisher is running for reelection to the seven-member council along with first-term members Jim Bannar and Susan Shin Angulo. Joining the Democratic ticket is Carole Roskoph, an English teacher at Cherry Hill West and chairwoman of the planning board. Republicans are running two former candidates - Nancy O'Dowd and Dan Loveland Sr., both unsuccessful in 2009 - and new contenders John Galie, a former school board president, and Stephen Cohen, a dentist.

A sealed-bid liquor license auction held Tuesday by the Township of Cherry Hill drew just one bidder: a company run by the family that owns a group of ShopRite supermarkets. Brett, Jason, and Shawn Ravitz are partners in Empire Liquors L.L.C., which township officials said bid $501,000 on the distribution license. The Ravitzes intend to sell alcohol inside the ShopRite store at the Garden State Pavilion, said ShopRite spokeswoman Karen Meleta. "It's really a convenience to our customers," Meleta said.

Want a beer with that burger? How about a glass of wine with your pasta? Right now in Brookhaven, Delaware County, you can't order either. But change may be on the menu. Borough officials have collected more than enough signatures to put a referendum on the May 21 ballot that would allow restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages. Brookhaven is one of 22 municipalities in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs that are "dry" when it comes to alcohol sales in restaurants and bars.

Cherry Hill has lifted a ban that prevented grocery and big-box stores from selling liquor, expanding the field of potential bidders when it auctions a new liquor license next month. The change, approved Monday night by the township council, has drawn protests from liquor-store owners, who say they will be driven out of business by chain supermarkets. "This is basically our whole livelihood," said Rich Brooks, who owns Benash Liquors on Route 38. "This is just an SKU [stock-keeping unit]

You need a liquor license for your bar or restaurant? You are not alone, it seems, as Philadelphia is in the throes of a restaurant boom. This helps to explain a sharp rise in the price of restaurant liquor licenses in the city recently, after a steady rise over the last decade. Licenses that last fall sold for $60,000 to $65,000 are now fetching $85,000 and perhaps more, according to lawyers who specialize in the transactions. That is more the double the asking price for a license in 2002, when they sold for $35,000.

Whole Foods Market, the national organic supermarket chain, is coming to Cherry Hill next year. The company, which will replace the former Genuardi's supermarket at the Ellisburg Circle Shopping Center, plans to open in spring 2014, according to John Hendrickson, Northeast regional chief operating officer for Federal Realty Investment Trust, which manages the center. "I think they view it as a perfect market for them," Hendrickson said of the Texas-based grocer. Whole Foods has a location in Marlton, and "they see this as a complement, really, to that," Hendrickson said.

Cherry Hill is considering lifting a restriction that prevents grocery stores from selling alcohol as it prepares to auction off a rare liquor license. Township officials say they are weighing whether to amend a rule that requires liquor-distribution licenses to be issued only to stand-alone stores after evaluating the policies of other towns that have no such restriction. "We want Cherry Hill to remain economically competitive," said Erin Gill, township director of policy and planning.

Plans are under way to turn a former restaurant in Gloucester Township into New Jersey's fifth free-standing offtrack wagering operation. A lease was signed this week for the building at 1300 Blackwood-Clementon Rd. that had housed the Stone Grille, Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming Inc., said Thursday. The site, which would have a restaurant and bar, would be known as Favorites at Gloucester Township. It shares a name with three other OTWs now open in the state.