Booze barred at Lawrence Country Club’s kosher events

Liquor lockdown

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of April 30, 2010/ Iyar 16, 5770

The annual dinner of the Lawrence-Far Rockaway Community Kollel on Tuesday evening was a dry affair - not because the program was boring or the cause unworthy, but - on account of what an attendee at the Lawrence Country Club described as, "two beefy security guards walking around policing whether anybody was serving or consuming liquor."

The men, muscular and intimidating in tight black shirts, were in the employ of Mezza on the Green, the non-kosher caterer at the elegant club on Causeway in Lawrence. Similarly attired men were reportedly present at a kosher event at the club on Sunday evening, as well.

Mezza, which holds a liquor license, and the country club's kosher caterer, Chap-a-Nosh, which does not, are locked in a contractual dispute over fees for serving wine and spirits at kosher events. The fight has been brewing for nearly a year. It reportedly led another kosher caterer, Mauzone, to walk away from the country club at the end of February without seeking to renew its contract. At least one prospective kosher client has moved her June event to another venue and is demanding a refund.

In a sense, it seems that both caterers are right.

Two sources confirmed to The Jewish Star that the disagreement arose in 2009 after the Village of Lawrence and Mezza on the Green agreed on set corkage fees and bartending services for kosher events at the country club - fees that were already spelled out in existing contracts with Mauzone and Chap-a-Nosh - but then somehow the wrong contract was signed. Mezza's signed deal with the village is actually different than the version that was approved by the Lawrence Board of Trustees, according to the sources.

The discrepancy became apparent last May when Mezza first sought to collect the fees that its contract says it is entitled to. Chap-a-Nosh, understandably, prefers to pay only the lower fees to which it previously agreed. The differences between the two versions of the contract are sobering, running into thousands of dollars per event.

Yehuda Honig made an aufruf at the country club at the end of December but when presented with the required fees for wine and liquor he balked.

"'I'm not paying you $4600 so that three guys can take a shot of vodka,'" he said he told the representative of Mezza on the Green. "'If you want, I'll make you a deal. I'm going to bring my own liquor and I'll give you a flat $1500, take it or leave it.' In the end he took it. It was free money for him," Honig said.

"It's going to hurt the country club's business a lot," predicted Chani Einhorn. She made an engagement party for her daughter at the club in March and booked a weekend sheva brachos for June. But she moved the second event to a hotel and demanded a refund after going through weeks of uncertainty and aggravation over corkage and bartending fees before the engagement party.

"I didn't want to deal with it again, so I canceled," Einhorn said. "People are going to stay away. It's becoming an exorbitant situation. I understand that [Mezza] holds the liquor license and he's entitled to it, [but] I wasn't looking to spend $5,000 on liquor for a Shabbos sheva brachos."

"It is an unfair tax because why shouldn't we be able to serve liquor," said Honig. "We have to pay for our caterer; it's a community country club. And furthermore, [alcohol] is required for kiddush. We're not drinkers. When you have a kiddush, how many people, maybe 15 or 20 percent, take hard drinks?"

"I'm a Lawrence resident for 20 years. I pay my taxes. This is the first time I'm using the country club," Einhorn said. "I'm entitled to have liquor served."

Reached by telephone, Lawrence Trustee Michael Fragin, who attended the kollel event, said, "I don't know if I should issue an apology or a statement," but he declined to comment further, citing the possibility of litigation against the village.

The Jewish Star sought comment from Lawrence Mayor Simon Felder, and the village administrator, David Smollett, as well as from representatives of Mezza on the Green and Chap-a-Nosh.

Mayor Felder did not respond to several telephone messages left on Tuesday evening and an email sent early Wednesday. E-mails to the village administrator and Mezza on the Green were not answered. Chap-a-Nosh declined to comment in anticipation of a long-sought meeting with village officials. It was scheduled to take place late this week.