CAPE MAY – An agenda item before the Cape May City Council at its July 19 meeting called for authorizing a person-to-person transfer and place-to-place transfer of a liquor license belonging to the owners of the now-closed Merion Inn.
The resolution sought transfer of the license to the New Jersey Farmers Cooperative Group LLC. If approved, the license would allow the Farmers Cooperative to serve liquor to guests of the Southern Mansion bed and breakfast at a bar previously used at the Merion Inn and now to be transferred to the Southern Mansion.
The Southern Mansion will have a third-party vendor, the Farmers Cooperative, setting up and staffing a bar on its premises to be used only by registered guests or temporary guests by which the reference is to those individuals who attend a time-limited celebratory event on the premises, a wedding being one example.
The legal restrictions in this relationship would require that the Farmers Cooperative cannot share employees or revenue with the Southern Mansion, a circumstance that led council members to question how typical functions like room service and signing over a bar tab to the room would work.
The proposal also ran into opposition from neighbors concerned with a potential increase in noise and events running later than they do now.
Marcus Karavan, attorney for the Farmers Cooperative, agreed to meet with a neighborhood group to see if a mutually agreeable position can be ironed out, allowing a consensus position to be presented back to council. Resident Dennis Crowley also raised concerns with what he said was “the most convoluted arrangement” for transfer of a liquor license he had ever seen.
Karavan said repeatedly that nothing was changing at the Southern Mansion. He said the only difference is that where events brought alcohol onto the premises in the past, it would now be available from an onsite vendor.
He also argued that use of the bar by registered guests in one of the Southern Mansion’s 24 suites would likely be limited and sporadic. He placed emphasis on the fact that the public would not be allowed to enter and drink at the bar.
No action was taken on the resolution. The issue will be back on the agenda at the Aug. 2 meeting.
