NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – There will be no beers poured, no dancing, no screaming guitars, no gigs at Toad’s Place for the next three months. The famous nightclub, where stars from Count Basie to the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash to U2 have all performed, shut its doors Friday for three months by order of the state Liquor Control Division.
Liquor control agents and police officers raided Toad’s Place in November 2005 as the club was holding a “College Night.” The club was charged with selling of alcohol to minors and negotiated a settlement with the state. It agreed to close its doors for 90 days and pay a $90,000 fine. None of the underage drinkers was arrested.
“What’s done is done,” Toads General Manager Ed Dingus of Hamden told the New Haven Register. “We’ve got to play by the rules.”
The club is popular with Yale, Southern Connecticut and Quinnipiac University students. Brian Phelps, one of Toad’s owners, said his workers use a machine that checks IDs.
The bar also pays for buses to help stop drinking and driving. He said fake IDs are a major problem.
On Friday night, Toad’s held its final concert of the spring, featuring Black 47, a popular New York-based Irish-American rock band.
“New Haven without Toads is like the devil without a tail,” the band’s frontman, Larry Kirwan, said.
There had been rumors that Toad’s, which opened in 1975, might decide to leave New Haven. A sister club is opening in Richmond, Va. in June.
But Phelps said he plans to reopen the York St. club in August and has already book several acts through the fall.
“Do you think that I just gave the state a gift for $90,000?” he said.
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