Thursday, April 10, 2014

TGI Friday's in Braintree Warned over Violation of Happy Hour Ban

A Boston-area location of a national chain of casual restaurants has been given a warning due to a violation of the state's "happy hour" ban on discounted drinks.

The Braintree Forum reports that the community's licensing board has threatened TGI Friday's on Forbes Road with a one-day suspension of its liquor license after finding that the place had violated the ban by charging a police officer $3.00 for a mudslide martini on a Wednesday and $7.19 for the same drink the following day. (The article says that the blackboard at the bar on that Wednesday showed specials called "Martini Wednesdays" as well as "Three Buck Thursdays.") This price difference was in violation of a state regulation that keeps dining and drinking spots from charging different prices for the same drinks during the same week, according to the Forum.

TGI Friday's reps say their intentions were to offer lower prices for the entire month rather than offering daily drink specials and felt that this was "a training error, an error in execution" and that the general manager and director of operations had been "removed" from the Braintree outlet.

The article says that the threat of a liquor license suspension will be held in abeyance for a year, so if the Braintree location of TGI Friday's doesn't have any other problems over the next year, it will not be enforced.