A sports bar on Highway 58 in Chattanooga will have its beer permit suspended for three days after violating the city’s beer code.
Studio 58 will serve the suspension June 9-11, following a decision from the Chattanooga Beer & Wrecker Board.
The board found the bar was disorderly and allowed people to leave its property with open containers of alcohol the night of April 16.
The bar had been hosting a Memphis rapper that drew more people to the venue than it could hold, owner Terrance Jones said Thursday. Jones told the board the bar hit capacity and stopped letting people in.
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“That’s kind of where some of the chaos came,” Jones said. “Once we got to capacity and we told them we wouldn’t let nobody in, it was a couple of people who were disappointed. I called the police just to try to clear the parking lot … when they told me they couldn’t do that, I decided to just shut down for the day.”
The bar also has a brown-bag policy, Jones said, meaning people can bring their own hard liquor. Chattanooga Police Sgt. Jason Wood said Studio 58 hasn’t been licensed for brown-bag liquor and would need to apply for that permit to continue the policy.
On the night of April 16, Jones said he wasn’t able to make sure bottles were in bags as people left the bar because he was dealing with police. The bar was cited after officers reported seeing multiple people leaving with bottles of liquor.
Body camera footage from Chattanooga police officers showed crowds of people standing in the parking lot outside the bar as security guards and police told them to go home. A security guard could be heard talking about a fight that had taken place in the lot before police arrived.
A security worker at the bar had called Chattanooga police the day before the rapper was set to play Studio 58, asking for help with crowd control, according to calls played during Thursday’s meeting.
Security then called twice on the day of the show, first to request crowd control and then to report that “multiple fights” had broken out, according to the call recordings.
After the parking lot was cleared, body camera footage showed Jones speaking with officers, including Sgt. Curtis Roth, outside.
When Jones told officers he wanted to work with the Police Department to make sure the bar didn’t have another incident like that one, Roth said it was Jones’ responsibility.
“You are the entrepreneur here. That would be like me going into McDonald’s and telling them how to make a hamburger,” Roth said. “You are the entrepreneur. I am the police. I can’t recommend anything because if someone winds up dead in the parking lot, and I recommended you something and he still winds up dead, who’s at fault? Me. Every single time, it’s me.”
(READ MORE: Chattanooga police: Shooting on Highway 58 leaves one dead, one injured)
A man was found dead from gunshots in the parking lot of the complex that includes Studio 58 last week, and another was reportedly injured in the fight. Jones said the fight took place while the bar was closed and a staff member was doing an inventory check inside.
In the body camera footage shown Thursday, Roth said Jones should “adjust” the type of clientele that comes to the sports bar.
“Sooner or later, someone’s going to be laying dead right here,” Roth said in the video.
Roth also said the bar should consider raising its age limit to enter.
“Just real talk, it’s hard to run a nightclub in Chattanooga like this,” Roth said in the body cam footage. “You’re appealing to college kids; all they like to do is get drunk and sassy. You’re appealing to guys who come out of East Chatt and East Lake, just dealing with that clientele. And I feel you, that culture, man, I love it … I love working down here, and I love being in that culture.”
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.