Pittsfield Licensing Board Reduces Panchos' Hours Again
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Panchos' hours have been dialed back again after several reported late-night incidents.
The Licensing Board has reduced the eatery and bar's closing time from 1 a.m. to midnight with the last call at 11:30 p.m.
At the end of 2023, Panchos Mexican Restaurant was slapped with a seven-day liquor license suspension and reduced hours after police came forward with more than 10 disturbances on site since August, including projectile vomiting and talk of a gun.
Police Capt. Matthew Hill came to the board on Monday with five incidents gathered by officers this summer. Staff members say they have done their due diligence inside and cannot control the outside activity.
"I hate to say it, but as soon as we started letting you do the last call and closing later, here you are back here for the same thing," board member Kathy Amuso said.
"And I know what you're saying, 'Well, sometimes maybe they're from other bars or just sitting outside,' but you are the ones that are coming before us so it seems like you can't handle the crowd that comes in."
Chairman Thomas Campoli commented that the issues essentially went away when the restaurant was required to close earlier.
"And I get what you're saying about people can do what they want to do on the street but when the issues are right out in front of Ponchos every time, then we got to do something to at least try to avoid that situation from happening," he said.
The new incident reports were on June 23, July 13, Aug. 10 and Aug. 25, all between 12:45 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. They included disturbances outside of Panchos, heavy intoxication, and a patron leaving with a full beer. Hill said that during the June and July incidents, no calls were made to police dispatch.
"It also appears that in both the June 23 and July 13 incidents, serving alcohol to intoxicated persons is a problem again," Hill said.
"The report of a party leaving Ponchos with a bottle of beer is also not the first time that such an offense has occurred there and was placed on record."
Officer Caleb Cimini said he has performed extra checks at Panchos that are requested due to the "sheer volume of disturbances" that have occurred. He said patrons were exiting the bar up until 1:35 a.m. and some were stumbling.
"Their conversations are so loud that I can hear it from the cruiser with my windows partially rolled down, across the street," he said.
"I also want to make note that in the report at about 1:30, I could still hear the music booming. I could hear the music echoing down North Street to my cruiser. I could make out the type of music that was within the bar."
Manager Gabriel Columna and a longtime employee stated that people inside after the 1 a.m. closing time is because of staff cleaning and waiting to be paid out. An officer confirmed that the doors were locked before 1 a.m.
"I'm sorry but the truth is, the reality is, people also use substances that aren't alcohol that's being served," the employee said.
"And what they decide to do with substance abuse — we can't go search their pockets so when they go outside for a smoke break, what they're going around the corner and smoking or ingesting or vaping, we can't control that."
Panchos hired H&S Investigations Inc. for security. Owner Howard Siegel reported that, to his knowledge, none of the incidents were inside.
"When it comes to the sidewalk, we certainly have no jurisdiction of any kind once they leave," he added.
"Once they leave the building, our officers are instructed, of course, if anything turns into more than 'Hey, you need to leave,' they're instructed to either call the police or have someone call the police and do the best they can to mitigate any issue."
Columna is at the restaurant every day and reiterated that the problems are not inside. When the staff try to control activity outside, they are reportedly told that it is public property and people do what they want.
"Inside is no problems," he said. "I don't know, outside is sometimes hard to because I've got to stay inside and check it out."
Tags: license board, alcohol license,
