A Fells Point eatery with a history of neighborhood complaints about noise ran afoul of the Liquor Board for having outdoor live music without a license to do so.

Part of the rapidly expanding Atlas Restaurant Group, The Choptank was cited for violating city liquor law.

An inspector appeared before the board yesterday to recount what she found on August 24 in response to an 11:25 a.m. 311 complaint.

The complaint was for “disturbing the peace, noise, loud music and front door open,” according to agent Cindy-Leigh Tudhope. “A musician was on an outdoor stage with amplified music that could be heard beyond 50 feet” according to the caller.

When Tudhope arrived at the restaurant at 1641 Aliceanna Street, she said, she “could hear the music playing from the front of the establishment” and observed a woman performing on a stage using amplified equipment connected to outdoor speakers.

Tudhope reviewed the Choptank’s license, verified that it did not show permission for live outdoor entertainment and told the manager to “move the entertainer inside and lower the outdoor speakers,” which he did.

“So full-out concerts at Choptank?” Commissioner Granville Templeton III said with a grin, addressing the licensee.

“It was addressed immediately,” attorney Anastasia Thomas Nardangeli assured the three-member board.

“I can just talk,” Atlas President and CEO Alex Smith interrupted, taking charge of the testimony.

“Not aware”

Smith said that what the agent saw at the Choptank that Saturday morning has been going on at the restaurant for five years.

“Just to add clarity, we’ve been operating brunch on Saturdays and Sundays with outdoor live music at Choptank since 2019 when we opened,” Smith said.

He alluded next to the complainant without directly saying her name.

“A competing business owner, who’s now out of business, the previous owner of Bertha’s . . . is the one that called on us,” Smith said, noting that “she’s been back and forth with us for many projects that we have going on in the neighborhood.”

Smith said his restaurant had received “a warning” about outdoor entertainment the week before (he didn’t say from whom), and described himself as not fully cognizant of the terms of  his establishment’s license.

“I was not aware that, even though we have live entertainment on our license, that we were not allowed to have outdoor live entertainment,” he testified.

He also dropped the name of a top city official – Colin Tarbert, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation –  who he said had assured him that Atlas could have live outdoor entertainment because their restaurant is in one of the city public markets.

“We’re part of the markets board, so even though we have ‘live entertainment’ on our license, we were under the impression from Colin Tarbert that at a Baltimore public market, which we’re in, that you can do outdoor live entertainment because they do it at the Northeast Market, they do it at Cross Street and others,” he said.

“But that’s neither here nor there,” he continued. Tacking back to his earlier explanation, he said he sent the staff an email after receiving the prior warning to immediately stop outdoor entertainment.

But the person on duty that day never saw it. “So it was a management miscommunication,” he said.

Past Complaints

The commissioners had no questions.

No one brought up the fact that The Choptank had been, by Smith’s own admission, hosting outdoor live music every weekend – and considered whether this implied it had been in violation of its liquor license for five years.

Also unmentioned was the raft of noise complaints in 2021 and the argument by a group of 15 neighbors that the establishment deserved to lose its license over the loud entertainment.

According to their complaint, The Choptank subjected the neighborhood to live or recorded music seven nights a week, with noise levels that stood out even in the busy entertainment area.

“The 700 block of South Broadway,” resident Glenn Moomau said at the time, “is an active, often rowdy block and Choptank, with its high-tech array of speakers, has changed the dynamic considerably, which was no small feat.”

None of the restaurant’s history of noise complaints surfaced at yesterday’s hearing.

Smith hit back hard at his critics.

His attorney sent many of them letters accusing them of protesting the restaurant’s license renewal “under false pretenses” and warning them of actions that Atlas might take, “including filing suit against you.”

Only a few residents showed up to testify at the subsequent hearing, and the Liquor Board ruled unanimously in Smith’s favor, leaving the Choptank’s license untouched.

Earlier this year, complaints about Atlas establishments in Fells Point flared again, when the company sought to transfer a liquor license to a Thames Street address adjacent to its Waterfront Hotel, which neighbors said generated “noise bombarding us at all hours.”

• Atlas Restaurant Group’s plan for a new bar on Thames Street stirs anger and fear (5/13/24)

The din from The Waterfront, complained resident Jeanne Nevin, blended with the blare from Fells Point’s other two Atlas establishments, The Admiral’s Cup and The Choptank.

Complaints to the city 311 about illegal decibel levels, she said, never resulted in violation notices.

As before, individuals who brought their concerns to the Liquor Board received chilling letters from Smith’s lawyer, warning them they could be personally sued.

None of that history surfaced at yesterday’s hearing.

Instead, Commissioner Templeton summed the latest complaint up briskly.

“I do find there was a violation of rule 4.12, Live Entertainment without Authorization,” he said, issuing a $150 fine with 30 days to pay.

“There has not been any other violations on this property. Seems like everything was fixed, everything’s in order.”

The other two commissioners, former City Councilman Edward Reisinger and Harvey E. Jones, concurred.