Karen Shostak, who created C.O.R.E. to help teach bar owners and their staffs the laws about serving alcohol.Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission Requirements
* Applicant for an On-Premise Server Permit must be at least eighteen (18) years old.* Applicant must complete a TABC-certified alcohol awareness program within the previous year prior to applying for an On-Premise Server permit.* The certificate indicating successful completion of the class is not a TABC server permit. Servers must attend and pass a TABC certified alcohol awareness class within one year of the date of application for the server permit. If the permit is not obtained within one year of successfully completing the class, servers must attend and pass the training course again.* New servers have a 61-day grace period from the original date of hire to attend a TABC certified alcohol awareness training class and have a server permit on file with the establishment of hire. This is a one-time grace period, not available every time a server changes employers.* On-Premise Consumption licensees must have copies of all server permits available for review by the TABC at all times, and failure to do so could result in disciplinary and administrative actions.— Source: www.tn.gov/abc/topic/on-premise-server-permit
Jon Reinert, general manager of the 3rd Deck Burger Bar at Pier 2 on the Landing, sits inside the lounge area of the restaurant/game room/bar. He holds up two different state driver's licenses.
"Can you tell which one is real and which one is fake?" he asks.
Both look and feel "official" and real, if nothing else. One has a raised seal on it and looks more official than the other one, however. The cheaper-looking one is also made with a flimsy paper that seems like it might easily tear.
"Nope, they're both real, but it's not easy when they are so different," Reinert says. "Now do it with a line of people in a hurry to get a drink.
"Every state's is different. And we are a tourist destination, so we get people from 35 countries and all 50 states."
State law requires that anyone who looks like they might be under 50 is carded, but it makes things easier and more consistent for the staff to card everyone, Reinert says. It's a policy Reinert knows makes some people angry - they've turned away a 95-year man who didn't have his ID - but the penalty for getting caught serving to an underage buyer can run into thousands of dollars.
"I'd rather lose a $6 sale than get busted," he says.
The Burger Bar also employs a staff member who is paid extra to watch for someone trying to illegally buy alcohol, and the business pays a reward to any staff member who spots someone trying to do so.
"I love that idea," says Karen Shostak. "I'm going to share that with my other clients."
Shostak knows all too well how difficult it can be to train people who will be serving beer or alcohol to other adults.
As director of sales for Friends of the Festival, the organization that produces the Riverbend Festival among other events, Shostak is responsible for training the people who sell beer and wine at the annual event. After Riverbend was cited for selling to an underage person in 2008, she made it a personal mission to learn all she could about proper procedures so she could train the servers.
Once armed with all that knowledge, in 2009 she started consulting other events around the region, such as the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival in Winchester, Ca., as well as venues, restaurants and bars. This past year, she officially created a business called C.O.R.E. (Compliance Orientation Responsibility Education) along with her husband, Robert Weber.
As part of C.O.R.E.'s service, Shostak deals with the laws and procedures surrounding the sale of alcohol, and Weber consults the businesses on compliance issues.
"He comes in after the training and makes sure that everything that is trained is acted on," Shostak. "I teach the compliance, and he checks on the compliance."
What businesses like C.O.R.E. do is go beyond that one-time class and offer once- or twice-a-year training that can serve as a refresher course or provide updates on law changes.
Taking a risk
Not everyone takes the same precautions as Reinert's Burger Bar. The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission recently issued 1,500 citations across the state in one 14-day period. The fines ranged from $125 for failure to have manager registration on the premises to $1,500 for selling to a minor.
"The highest I've seen is $3,500, and there can be multiple fines," Shostak says.
There are city, county and state regulations to follow and a witches' brew of IDs to check. Throw in IDs from foreign countries and the military, then add in the stress of looking at a line of angry people ready for a beer and, well, it can be tough.
Shostak's idea is not unique. TopShelf Edu, which is based in Knoxville, not only offers personalized training for businesses that sell beer and alcohol across the state, it helps produce the materials and certifies other trainers, according to company President Kim Pouncey. It also works with the Hamilton County Coalition on some of its training and services.
"We also do specialized programs, and we've written online courses as well to help retrain or refresh what people have learned," he says.
C.O.R.E. charges between $50 and $75 per employee for its training, and Shostak says she spends about 20 hours a year per employee training each of her seven clients.
"I like to see them be proactive," she says.
The city, county or state can fine a business that sells to underage drinkers or is caught without the proper certification papers required for all employees who deal with liquor or beer. Alcohol sales can be suspended at the business for days or weeks, and each government agency can individually suspend or fine a business. That represents a good deal of lost potential revenue.
"You could get fined for selling to a minor, and they could then check your server cards or registration," Shostak says.
Reinert says Burger Bar takes training its staff seriously and has hired Shostak to come in twice a year to train new staff and update others. If nothing else, it helps him not worry so much while he is away because the staff knows what they are doing and understand the consequences if the bar/restaurant is fined and forced to suspend alcohol sales for up to two weeks.
Confusion
Just in this area, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have different rules and regulations for the sale of alcohol and beer. In Tennessee, for example, you don't need any training or certification to serve beer, but you do need a card from the Alcohol Beverage Commission to sell alcohol.
In Tennessee, alcohol servers are required to take a class before being certified and, for many, that's the extent of their training.
Georgia requires three types of licenses/permits to sell alcohol: a local alcohol license, a state alcohol license and a Federal Basic Permit; there are also many different types of licenses such as Brewpub, Broker, Farm Winery, etc., according the www.georgia.gov website.
"Businesses can be fined and it can be expensive, but people can get hurt and lives can be affected also, and that is what we want to prevent," Shostak says.
To help, she teaches servers and bartenders an easy-to-remember step-by-step method for checking IDs. It's proprietary so she won't give details but says it involves looking at all the information provided on the license, including expiration date, hair color, height and weight - not just the birthday. The method gives the server a way to check every ID and customer the same way every time no matter the extraneous circumstances.
"It doesn't matter if you are serving 10,000 people or 10," she says.
Being safe
Monica Kinsey, general manager of 500-seat Revelry Room and 1,700-capacity Track 29 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, says her team contracted with C.O.R.E. to protect not only themselves but their staff.
"We really just wanted to go the extra mile to take precautions to protect our liabilities and our staff's liabilities," she says.
"There are lot of gray areas in the laws, and it is better to go to a source to keep you up-to-date and to have a refresher than to guess or assume," she says. "Plus, having them come in as a refresher is helpful. Sometimes folks get careless. This is something we take very seriously."
She adds that, since the Choo Choo is event-oriented, most of the staff work at other bars and restaurants when nothing is booked at the hotel complex. Shostak's training makes them better employees elsewhere, and it eliminates confusion if one venue teaches something that is incorrect, Kinsey says.
Chattanooga Police Officer John Collins often works with the Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board, the agency charged with overseeing on-premise beer sales, and says he's happy to see local businesses take the added step of hiring consultants like C.O.R.E.
"We are very supportive of any extra training that could prevent the sale of beer to anyone who is underage or who has already had enough," he says.
Collins and Shostak both say that sometimes businesses wait until they've been caught once or twice or even a third time before they seek the extra help. But fines can add up before the business wises up.
"Some businesses do re-evaluate after they get caught, and that can be expensive," Collins says.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.