Update – 3:25 p.m. – Montgomery County Police issued 12 civil citations related to underage and heavy drinking and made five DUI arrests Monday night into Tuesday morning during a sting at Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge in Rockville.
Police said they conducted the undercover sting after receiving several calls about intoxicated patrons, underage drinking and assaults stemming from the restaurant.
"Officers noted that the police calls for service seemed to coincide with on-going drink specials on Monday evenings at the restaurant," police reported. Those drink specials include half price bottles of wine Monday night as well as other specials that happen after 10 p.m. every weeknight.
In response, Claude Andersen, the corporate operations manager for Clyde's, said the restaurant will discontinue its Monday night special, "until we can figure out why there is such a problem."
Police announced in a press release that from 10 p.m. on Monday to 3 a.m. on Tuesday that plain clothes officers posted inside and outside the restaurant observed and cited the following activity:
- Five DUI arrests of people who said they were drinking at the restaurant. All five had Blood Alcohol Contents ranging from .09 to .22
- Seven civil citations issued for fake IDs, with all seven patrons being under 21
- Five civil citations issued for possession of alcohol by someone under 21. The five patrons were seen by police drinking in the establishment and all later had a blood alcohol content over .10 (over the adult legal limit of .08)
Police were also joined by an inspector from Montgomery County’s Deparment of Liquor Control who witnessed a woman requiring the help of other people to walk as well as underage drinking violations. Police said she had a BAC of .23. The DLC will conduct its own follow-up investigation, which could lead to the loss of the business' alcohol license or heavy fines.
Andersen said the fake IDs were so good they made it past the restaurant's security.
"They were very good IDs," Andersen said. "Quite frankly even the police admitted to us they were good fake IDs."
Andersen said the restaurant plans to work with police, who he says have agreed to help them, to fix any issues at the restaurant. He said police saturated the area the night of the sting.
"All I know is there were an awful lot of police in our restaurant and up and down the street," Andersen said. "I think they were stopping everyone who left."
Kathie Durbin, the chief of DLC’s division of licensure, regulation and education, said the DLC is waiting for formal reports from the police operation to be sent. After that, she said DLC employees will determine if there's any liquor license violations that took place. If so, they'll send a letter to the business and will schedule a hearing before the Montgomery Board of License Commissioners. She said it appears there are major violations at the business, but noted that police didn't feel the need to shut the restaurant down.
The restaurant, which is located at 2 Preserve Parkway in Rockville, is owned by the Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which operates 14 other restaurants in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia, according to its website.
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Drink specials – screenshot from Clyde's Tower Oaks website: