The city has suspended the license of a year-old Back Bay restaurant, where an owner and bartender were arrested during an illegal early-morning New Year's party, officials said yesterday.
The board ordered Vlora, an Albanian-themed restaurant on Bolyston Street, shut down for two weeks.
"It's a whack; two weeks is big," Boston Licensing Board chairman Daniel Pokaski said yesterday. Owners of the eatery, which has been closed since the incident and is scheduled to reopen Jan. 15, could not be reached for comment, but Pokaski said that one of them was apologetic when the Licensing Board heard the case on Tuesday.
Pokaski described the New Year's incident as a "massive mess."
Police went to the restaurant shortly after 5 a.m. Pokaski said police testified before the commission that someone had stopped officers near the restaurant and told them about a sexual assault that had taken place inside.
According to the police report, the grate along the restaurant's front door had been pulled down and padlocked, but officers could see people partying inside.
Officers found an alternative door and ordered the owner, Aldo Velaj, to unlock the grate. Once inside, police saw as many as 65 people.
Police said Velaj was uncooperative with their attempts to investigate the reported sexual assault and refused to answer their questions. When pressed, he "laughed out loud" and became belligerent, the report stated. He struck an officer before trying to walk away. Officers struggled to restrain him, and many in the crowd converged on them, the report stated.
Police said bartender Besnik Vukaj pointed a large kitchen knife threateningly at police, who drew their weapons, before a restaurant co-worker removed the knife from Vukaj's hands.
Velaj and Vukaj were arrested and charged with assault and battery, and the restaurant was cited for a sexual assault on the premises, serving alcohol after 2 a.m., and locking the main egress with a padlock. No other information on the alleged sexual assault was provided. Velaj and his wife, co-owner Cynthia Tsai, did not return phone calls yesterday. A message on the restaurant's answering machine said that it was closed "for the holidays."
The restaurant is named after Velaj's hometown in southwestern Albania and is known for its cold cabbage soup.
At the Licensing Board hearing, Tsai apologized to the board and police, Pokaski said.
"She wasn't there at the time [of the party], but she said she should have been," Pokaski said. "She was very apologetic . . . and said it would never happen again."
The three-member Licensing Board voted unanimously to close the restaurant for six weeks, with four weeks suspended.
