Clark Kirkman, attorney for Amanda and Jonathon Scroggs, shown to his right, appear before the Kosciusko County Alcohol Tobacco Commission Thursday or new alcohol licenses for The Barn 1880: Historic Venue, 2076 N. 100E, Warsaw. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Alcohol licenses can sometimes be purchased at auction through the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission.

That’s how three new applications ended up before the Kosciusko County Alcohol and Tobacco Commission Thursday, March 6.

Indiana Liquor Group LLC submitted a new application for a beer, wine and liquor package store. Chris Lamb, president and owner of Indiana Liquor Group, said the new permit for the package liquor store was bought at auction a couple months ago. The permit will be kept in escrow for now while a location in Winona Lake is pending. “We’re looking for some place to put it,” he said, noting it’ll probably have their “higher-end concept” if they can find a suitable location.

Excise officer April Tackett explained with the location pending for the license, an orange public notice sign did not have to be posted. There were no remonstrators against the new license application.

Commission President Alan Alderfer asked Lamb where Indiana Liquor Group was out of.

“Indy. We currently have 61 locations operating. Most of them are from Indianapolis north, so Muncie, Marion, Anderson and then up here we’ve got a couple in Huntington, one in Wabash. Kind of north of our territory, but we kind of play in that north of Indy territory,” Lamb responded.

Alderfer asked Tackett if they could approve the new license application without a location.

“Yeah. So this is an auction permit, which means that’s why it’s pending location. Basically, pending location is voting to approve or deny the permittee themselves. And then when they find a suitable location, then they’ll have to come back for that location as well,” she explained.

Commission member Dan Woods made a motion to approve, Mike Hall seconded and the motion passed 4-0. The state commission will still need to approve the new license at their next meeting.

Heritage House Enterprises LLC, doing business as The Barn 1880: Historic Venue, 2076 N. 100E, Warsaw, had two new applications before the commission. The first was for a beer retailer — restaurant license and the second was for a beer, wine and liquor restaurant (210-1) license. Both of the new permit applications were heard by the commission together.

“It’s one of those permits where you have to have an underlying permit, to have one for the other,” Tackett said.

Speaking for the petitioners, Jonathon and Amanda Scroggs, attorney Clark Kirkman said, “As far as the permit is concerned, there’s actually another wrinkle. Not only is it a 210-1 permit, but we requested and the ATC actually voted and approved at their meeting last Tuesday to designate this permit as a catering hall. So what that means is, it’s not open to the public.”

He said the Scroggses have been operating the venue for a while. About a year ago, they obtained a special catering hall permit, which is an off-quota permit, which allows them to operate private events only.

“We obtained this permit that we converted to the three-way at the recent permit auction. And the reason being, is that this permit will allow them, on a one-off basis, to notify the excise district to hold public events. So it won’t be open all the time to the public, but if they want to hold a fundraiser, for instance, that’s a ticketed event, excise considers those ticketed events to be open to the public, so you have to notify the district. And their current permit wouldn’t allow for such events, so that’s why we’re getting this permit today,” Kirkman said.

Amanda said they predominantly have weddings at the venue, sometimes Mimosa baby showers, and they’re happy to provide that service to the community.

“But we also have a spring market and a fall market, and we’d like to offer an open bar to those events,” she said.

Kirkman stated, “And previous to them actually obtaining the special catering hall, the permit they obtained a year ago, they were sometimes running it off temporary beer and wine permits that you would apply for on a one-off basis. And then they went and got the special catering hall, now they’re upgrading to the three-way quota permit that will allow them to do everything they need to do.”

Tackett said with it being designated as a catering hall, that gives the Scroggses the ability to have the exemptions, like minor loitering, etc.

Alderfer asked the Scroggses if they are providing alcohol currently, and they said for private events. At public events, he asked if they were going to have a bartender or how were they going to handle that.

“We’re both licensed bartenders. We will take care of all of that ourselves. We’re very hands-on,” Amanda replied. Kirkman reiterated the Scroggses have had their own permit they’ve been using to furnish alcohol for years.

“When the ATC — assuming we are successful today — approves this at their next commission meeting, we’ve also requested that their Subsection D off-quota permit be relinquished, because you can’t have two permits at the same time. So they will relinquish that one and put this one to use,” he explained.

With no remonstrators, Woods made a motion to approve, Hall seconded it and the motion passed 4-0. The permit will next go before the state commission for their approval.

In other business, licenses without any violations approved by the commission Thursday included:

• Aldi (Indiana) LP, doing business as Aldi, location pending, Warsaw, beer and wine dealer – grocery story license.

• Dolgencorp LLC, doing business as Dollar General Store No. 7654, 9554 W. SR 25, Mentone, beer and wine dealer — grocery store license.

• Loyal Order of Moose 1423, doing business as LOOM 1423, 1815 W. Lake St., Warsaw, beer, wine and liquor — fraternal club license.

• Multani Mart Inc., 400 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, beer and wine dealer — grocery store license.

• South Shore Ventures LLC, doing business as South Shore Social, 10601 N. SR 13, Syracuse, beer, wine and liquor — restaurant (209) license.

• Walmart Stores East LP, doing business as Walmart No. 1304, 2501 Walton Blvd., Warsaw, beer, wine and liquor — drug store license.