Durango Beer & Ice Co. must pay a $5,378 fine and suspend alcohol sales for 14 days after Durango City Council determined the business had been serving alcohol without the required liquor licenses for nearly a year.
Tuesday’s hearing concluded a licensing hearing that began in June where there were conflicting interpretations of Colorado liquor licensing law. Owner Mark Harvey argued his business was operating legally, while City Attorney Mark Morgan said the restaurant had been selling alcohol without the required state and local licenses since 2024.
Both men ended up being a little bit right and a little bit wrong.
Documentation showed Harvey’s liquor license expired Sept. 24. While the state provided a 90-day grace period, the brewery failed to secure a renewed license but continued operating and selling alcohol.
Once again, the back-and-forth between Morgan, councilors and Harvey was tense.
Harvey criticized council as being adversarial to local businesses and operating its hearings without the fundamental foundation of “innocent until proven guilty.”
Additionally, Harvey said, Morgan’s decision to prohibit the restaurant from hosting a pie eating contest July 4 was “arbitrary and capricious.”
He continued to fall back on the fact he had, until 2025, operated under a wholesale liquor license, and argued therefore he was not subject to city oversight.
Morgan argued back that Harvey was subject to the same licensing requirements as every other establishment selling alcohol in Durango, and the wholesale license Harvey let lapse had been a loophole for businesses to only need to meet state compliance, not the city’s.
Once the license expired, Harvey lost his grandfathered exemption dating back to 2015, when Colorado only required state liquor licenses for certain establishments, Morgan said. The law changed in 2015 to require state and local liquor licenses. Businesses that allow a license to lapse must obtain both before resuming alcohol sales.
He presented receipts from alcohol sales made by Durango Beer & Ice Co. on the day of the hearing and several days before as proof Harvey intentionally and knowingly sold alcohol illegally out of the business.
Council unanimously determined that Harvey violated Colorado State Liquor Law.
There was some disagreement over the appropriate penalty.
Councilors voted 4-1 to impose a Level 2 penalty – the 14-day closure and $5,378 fine. Councilor Shirley Gonzales voted against the motion after advocating for a level 1 penalty since it was Harvey’s first violation in decades of operation.
The proposed penalty would extend beyond the fine, Gonzales said. The closure until Durango Beer & Ice Co. receives the proper license, on top of the 14-day suspension, would create additional financial hardship, she said.
The minimum penalty under the state’s liquor code for a Level 1 violation is a $2,689 fine and a seven-day suspension.
Harvey now needs to acquire both licenses in order to reopen Durango Beer & Ice Co. and in order to start the clock on his 14-day suspension.
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