In a bid to satisfy patrons wanting to get turnt beyond midnight (and who can blame them), some restaurants in Chinatown have been coming up with crafty ways to give the authorities the runaround, according to an investigative report by Shin Min Daily News.
The Chinese news publication was first tipped off by a reader about restaurants in the vicinity that have been selling alcohol on the down low after midnight, despite not having the permits to do so.
How? Nothing too complicated — they simply pour wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages into teapots and plastic cups before serving them to customers.
Earlier this week, Shin Min reporters went undercover to see it for themselves and managed to get workers at two different restaurants to disguise beer as other beverages. To be fair to the establishments though, their workers refused to serve alcohol past midnight and explicitly told their customers so.
But they relented only after repeated insistence made by the reporters, and the alcohol would be poured into red plastic cups and teapots to avoid detection.
When Shin Min reporters visited the restaurants on Jan 2 to follow up, one of the restaurant’s bosses revealed that they don’t usually serve alcohol to customers after midnight, but will bend the rules for regular customers most of the time. The boss who spoke to Shin Min journalists blamed their actions on stiff competition with neighboring restaurants.
Liquor licenses are pretty strict under the Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Act, with the two restaurants visited likely holding a Beer House License, which stipulates alcohol trading hours from 0600hrs to 2359hrs only. If the authorities had been tipped off instead of Shin Min Daily News, the restaurants could have their licenses suspended for up to six months or canceled altogether.
