COUNCIL YANKS TASTE LIQUOR LICENSE

The Taste Restaurant and Lounge, a popular but troubled nightspot in Cape Girardeau's Good Hope area, will lose its liquor license effective July 1.

The loss means that the establishment, whose clientele predominantly is black residents of the city and communities throughout Southeast Missouri, likely will close.

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted 7-0 Monday against renewal. One councilman suggested changing the zoning of the Taste's location at 402 Good Hope Street to prevent someone else from opening a bar there in the future.

The Taste has been operating on a series of probationary liquor licenses for the last year. Monday was the fourth time during that period that police officials recommended renewal be denied.

Lounge owner Michael Pryor had no comment following the council's action. His attorney, Albert Lowes, said his client hadn't yet instructed him on how to proceed and couldn't say if Pryor would challenge the decision.

Strained relationship

An incident near the bar during the early morning hours of June 11, 1999, first strained the relationship between Taste patrons and police. An altercation between a white officer and a black motorist resulted in a near riot in which several officers were pelted with bricks and debris and a number of arrests were made.

Last June, the first time the bar's license came up for renewal following the incident, then-police chief Rick Hetzel recommended it be denied. The council instead chose to issue the first of three probationary licenses in order to give Pryor time to rectify the alleged problems at the bar.

Mayor Albert Spradling III said the council had been patient with Pryor and given him more second chances than it had with other problem establishments.

"It concerns me that with the admonitions we have issued Mr. Pryor, we haven't seen anything change," Spradling said.

Acting Police Chief Steve Strong said that on many Thursday and Saturday nights, the Taste's busiest, every officer on duty has to respond at closing time to help keep the peace.

"We just do not feel (Pryor) can control the people in there and the people who congregate outside the business," Strong said. "We don't feel it will get better if it is allowed to continue."

Strong said police responded to 42 calls at the Taste in the last year, 15 of which resulted in written reports. Ten of those were for violent incidents or peace disturbances. The total number of calls was up by seven from the previous year. The number of written reports during that time wasn't immediately available.

Of reports during the last probationary period, which began April 1, Pryor and Lowes said most had been wrongly attributed to the Taste and instead occurred in the vicinity and involved people who may not have been patrons of the bar.

Recent changes

Pryor said he improved security in recent months and more actively encouraged patrons to move along from the neighborhood at closing time.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer said the safety of officers can't continue to be risked by sending them into potentially volatile situations week after week. Neumeyer also said the rest of the city isn't being well served when so much manpower is busy at the Taste.

"The city is left hanging without police protection because they're all down there," Neumeyer said.

Councilman Jay Purcell said the council should consider actions to prevent the Taste from reopening under new management.

"If this is something we are going to aggressively pursue, we maybe ought to consider changing the zoning so another bar can't go in there," Purcell said.