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Wednesday, 02 December 2009 |
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
ST. MARYS — Knotty Pine has waited more than a year to satisfy a request by many local residents, and the answer is finally here.
After making the request and jumping hoops, Knotty Pine Co-owner Ted Hertenstein has received a beer license for the family based restaurant.
“We received it last Wednesday,” Hertenstein said. “It has been about a year in the making or better. We originally opened with hard liquor and wine.”
The Hertensteins chose to close down the restaurant through the summer and re-opened in the middle of August with their sights on the license, but it continued to take longer.
Hertenstein said many questions have been asked about the long process. While he said he wished it wouldn’t have taken so long, Hertenstein said he understands.
“For dining, it is one permit per 2,000 people, so the St. Marys quota was full,” Hertenstein said. “There is a process you can go through called a Trex, and you can Trex a liquor license from a county that has too many issued to them.”
Once Hertenstein applied for the license through the Trex process, he said there was more he had to have done.
“As long as city approves it through council, which they did; they were very helpful in helping me get all of that done,” Hertenstein said. “You can apply through the state, and the state views it as an economic development.”
Other hurdles the process included were the clearance from the Ohio Department of Taxation.
“It goes through and there is a liquor investigation to make sure there are not violations on the license that were still pending; once the license is considered clean it will transfer it in,” Hertenstein said. “All the different departments have a month or so to reply.”
He added there are more than 25,000 liquor permits in Ohio and one department takes care of them all.
“It is a really long process; you would hope it wouldn’t take so long, but it does,” Hertenstein said.
Upon the approval, the restaurant now has D1, D2 and D3 licenses for beer, wine and liquor until 1 a.m.
“I may consider in the future — there is a D3a license that would extend it until 2:30 a.m., but I will cross that bridge later,” Hertenstein said. “Right now I am very happy that we have beer and we want the town to know. We had people asking us when and had some people doubting we were ever going to get it.”
Hertenstein said he hopes to keep the family type atmosphere that Knotty Pine currently has.
“We have the big-screen TV’s; they can enjoy sports and a cold beer in a traditional Knotty Pine atmosphere,” Hertenstein said.
“Hopefully people can come in and reminisce about the old Knotty Pine and build new memories.” |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
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