News
Ashes Pays Back Taxes, Redeems Liquor License
By John Burton
RED BANK - Ashes Cigar Club is once again in possession of its liquor license.
The popular nightspot, restaurant and club, 29-33 Broad Street, which recently had its license to sell alcohol seized by state officials, paid delinquent sales taxes late last week and recovered its license.
Thomas Bell, a spokesman for the state Department of the Treasury's Division of Taxation, said that the owners of the bar/restaurant reached a settlement with the department and paid in excess of $88,000 to get the license returned.
On Feb. 21 state officials seized the license, alleging then that the business owed more than $100,000 in unpaid sales taxes.
At the time Bell said the department had attempted to contact Ashes' owners to settle the tax matter. After not receiving a response, officials petitioned a state Superior Court judge to issue a judgment against the business.
With the Jan. 15 judgment, state officials confiscated the license and closed the portion of the business that sells tobacco.
Bell said then, Ashes allegedly owed $88,000 in sales taxes for the second and third quarters of 2008. In addition, the cigar club portion of the business owed $28,000 for nonpayment of sales taxes for all of 2007.
The payment was made to the state on March 9, Bell said on Tuesday.
The owners may have reached an accord with the Department of the Treasury, but the ultimate fate of the liquor license still remains unsettled.
Last August the borough council voted to not renew the license, because borough officials had issue with the condition of the location, saying the bar exterior was often strewn with cigarette butts, overflowing ashtrays, empty bottles and glasses after closing, and until later in the morning when it reopens.
The owners have appealed to the state's Division of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), and the matter is still pending, according to Rachel Goemaat, a spokesman for the ABC.
Ashes, situated on the corner of Broad and Mechanic streets, has been in business for about 11 years, selling cigars and providing an interior smoking area, even after a statewide ban against it was approved by the Legislature, due to a loophole in the law.
In the past decade, the ABC has cited the location for three administrative violations, with the business paying approximately $3,500 in fines.
Unrelated to the liquor license, the business owners were convicted in municipal court last year for uniform code violations and faced thousands of dollars in fines.
Calls to the business were not returned and attempts to contact Aristotle Lekacos, a Wall resident who is listed as a corporate officer for the two entities conducting business at that location, were unsuccessful.
