This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Pagoda Restaurant has amassed scores of loyal customers - friends, really - in its 58 years of serving Asian food in Salt Lake City's Avenues neighborhood.
So owner Mark Iwasaki received numerous gifts during the Christmas season from appreciative diners, including a couple of bottles of wine, which he put on a table in the restaurant's kitchen. But when state liquor enforcement officers inspected the restaurant on Dec. 23, they saw that two wine bottles were illegal: one was from out of state, the other homemade.
They left Iwasaki with a Grinch-like Christmas gift - a citation for a "grave" infraction of Utah's liquor laws. Now the Pagoda is serving a 10-day suspension of its license to sell beer and wine.
"You get to the day before Christmas Eve and you'll have people bringing us fruit, candy, nuts. That wine was sitting there with bottles of Sparkling Martinelli [a nonalcoholic beverage]," Iwasaki said. "You knew we weren't selling it. I tried to explain it to the [enforcement officer], but he was bent on giving us that citation."
Earl Dorius, the Utah Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control's chief of compliance, acknowledged the Pagoda's violation was "as quirky as they come.. . . It's truly an unfortunate set of circumstances."
While he sympathized with the restaurant and understood Iwasaki's predicament when presented with gifts lacking the required state liquor seal - "they had good customers they didn't want to offend" - Dorius noted the law is the law, and all license holders know they are not supposed to have illegal liquor on their premises.
Plus, the bottles were on the premises for at least two days, he added.
That's true, Iwasaki said, noting that although he does not like the suspension, he has no problem with the way the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department handled the situation. He just questions the need for law-enforcement agents to be such sticklers, given the fact that it was the holiday season.
"I didn't think anything of [the bottles] being back there.. . . It's not like I was trying to hide it," he said. "But technically we're not supposed to, so we kind of took our medicine."
The restaurant could have paid a hefty fine for the violation, deemed grave because the absence of a state sticker implies smuggling, but opted instead for the suspension. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission approved the penalty Thursday.
Iwasaki said the suspension should not hurt his business too much. "We don't sell a lot of liquor so it's not a big deal," he added. "It's more of an inconvenience to our patrons. The last few days people have asked for beer or wine but we couldn't sell it to them."