The Gazebo, the popular open air bar on Straight Wharf, announced over the weekend that patrons must be 25 or older to enter. The unusual move came in response to a surge in the amount of underage people trying to drink at the establishment, as well as an increase in new fake ID cards that can evade detection by scanners and are disrupting service as Gazebo staff attempt to determine whether they are legitimate or not. A large sign stating the new policy now adorns the entrance to the bar.
”This is a tool I’m using to curb the very serious problem of underage drinking,” said Luke Tedeschi, owner and general manager of the Tavern and Gazebo. “These folks can’t act properly and it makes the customers that can act properly uncomfortable. I don’t need to be Fort Lauderdale on Spring Break. That’s not the business I want to have. This is the most dramatic measure I’ve had to take. I’m not sorry, or have any regrets.”
Tedeschi has run the Tavern and Gazebo for 29 years and has done just about every job at the bar and restaurant from dishwashing on up. He said that while these issues are not new, this summer has presented new challenges.
“The amount of fake IDs we’re seeing that are scannable and undetectable when it’s quite clear the individuals are not of drinking age, that becomes a problem,” Tedeschi said. “It’s an interruption in operating the business to those who are responsible and of legal age, taking up our resources or having to get Nantucket police involved.”
The new age limit will help his staff address those issues, take some of the guesswork out of a sometimes difficult situation, and reduce the potential for underage drinking at the Gazebo, not to mention Tedeschi’s own liability.
“This takes the question out of it,” he said of the new age limit. “I put this sign up because first and foremost, it’s about the liability I have in owning and operating a restaurant and bar, having a liquor license in my name.”
One question immediately raised by the new policy: is it even legal? If a person is of legal drinking age, refusing service based on race, sexual orientation, or disability is certainly unlawful, but can bars and restaurants restrict who they serve based on age? At least one island attorney told the Current this weekend that the Gazebo’s new policy was probably not legal and that it could run afoul of its liquor license issued by the town. But there is precedent for bars and restaurants doing this elsewhere, especially in New York. Food & Wine magazine recently explored the issue in a story on its website titled “Some Bars Are Refusing Service to Those Under 25, But Can They Do That?” The answer was, actually, yes.
Tedeschi feels strongly that the new policy at the Gazebo is legal.
“It’s a privilege to come into this establishment, not a right,” Tedeschi said.
New and improved fake ID cards have certainly posed a problem, he added, but the Gazebo is getting some help from the island’s State Police Troopers on that front. Gazebo staff confiscate at least “several” fake IDs on a daily basis, and now State Police Troopers are coming to the bar to collect and process them. If they’re able to issue a citation, they do so, Tedeschi said.
Nantucket Police representatives were not immediately available for comment over the weekend.
