State investigators have shuttered a Gilroy bar where
”
bar girls
”
hired by the venue goaded patrons to buy them drinks, splitting
the profits with the owners, authorities said.
Gilroy – State investigators have shuttered a Gilroy bar where “bar girls” hired by the venue goaded patrons to buy them drinks, splitting the profits with the owners, authorities said.
California Alcoholic Beverage Control agents revoked the license of La Cantinita, a tiny roadside bar west of Gilroy at the intersection of Hecker Pass Highway and Watsonville Road, and posted a notice of the revocation Aug. 3. The closure followed a year-long ABC investigation from May 2004 to June 2005, the agency’s decision to revoke the bar’s license, and two appeals by the bar’s owner, said Karyn Nielsen, ABC district administrator.
ABC agents discovered that La Cantinita employed “bar girls,” female employees who solicited bargoers, asking men to buy them drinks, Nielsen explained. The women then split the profits with the bar. ABC cited 28 counts of illegal solicitation during their yearlong investigation, as well as one count of allowing an underage person to consume alcohol at the bar.
Employing “bar girls” is a popular practice in Asia and Latin America, said Nielsen.
“It may be a common occurrence overseas,” she said, “but in California, it’s a violation of the law.”
County records list Jose Garza as the bar’s owner; in October, after a fire consumed a neighboring home, Olivia Lara identified herself to the Dispatch as the bar’s co-owner. La Cantinita was locked and empty Tuesday, and contact information for Garza and Lara was unavailable.
Sheriff’s deputies who patrol Hecker Pass Highway are familiar with the bar: Deputy Al Holborn said he sped to shut down a reported 15-person fight two weeks ago, just before the bar was shut down, only to find that everyone had fled. Broken pool cues littered the bar patio, he said. Such calls were routine, added Sgt. Joseph Waldherr.
“We’ve gone to a lot of disturbance calls up there,” he said, “but when we get there, everybody’s gone.”
Waldherr touted a grant shared by the Sheriff’s Office and ABC, which pays for one deputy, Sugey Jaimez, to focus specifically on ABC enforcement actions such as decoys, which send minors to purchase alcohol. The investigation of La Cantinita occurred before the grant went into effect, Jaimez said, but it’s representative of the work it supports.
ABC’s decision prohibits La Cantinita from selling alcohol for one year, possibly longer, said Nielsen. Next August, the bar’s current owner or another applicant can ask to reapply, facing heavy scrutiny from ABC, she added. The agency is also on the lookout for displaced “bar girls,” soliciting drinks at other Gilroy bars.
“They do tend to rotate,” said Nielsen. “Once we find one location that’s doing it, we often find the same girls, working somewhere else.”
