Bar Caught Selling Alcohol to Minors

State alcohol regulators suspended the license of a Ventura bar for 20 days Wednesday after its owner was caught selling alcohol to two teenagers sent in as decoys by Ventura police.

The Rendezvous Room can remain open until the suspension period ends, said Ed Macias, regional director of Alcohol and Beverage Control.

“But when you’re a bar, what are you gonna sell?” he said.

Soda and peanuts, said Jane Robinson, who owns the bar at 298 E. Main St. And only on Saturdays.

“Just to keep my customers, so they know I’m still here and can catch up on the gossip and all that,” Robinson said.

The suspension comes one year after Ventura police found a patron inside the bar with two children, ages 1 and 4.

ABC officials allowed the bar to serve a full-year probation in lieu of the 10-day suspension the offense brings.

However, when the bar was caught serving alcohol to the two teen decoys in April--a 17-year-old female and an 18-year-old male--the suspension for the previous offense was reinstated, along with a 10-day suspension for selling to minors, Macias said.

The Rendezvous Room is not the only county establishment with its license suspended, however.

North Bank Liquors at 2950 Johnson Drive in Ventura is in the middle of a 10-day suspension that ends Monday, Macias said. The suspension came after the store sold alcohol to a 19-year-old female, who also was a Ventura police decoy.

In Thousand Oaks, Central Market at 1491 Thousand Oaks Blvd. is serving a 25-day suspension that began May 29. The suspension followed a September 1995 incident when the store was caught selling to a 19-year-old male decoy from the Sheriff’s Department. The owner appealed the suspension and lost, Macias said, but the appeal process took until May of this year to be resolved.