Liquor Control board, Frederick, MD

[SamiraShuruk]

This is a cross post. It's also on local Yahoo bdance groups and 3 local interest bdance tribes.
Wanted to reach people here, as well.
We ALMOST has a serious problem in Frederick, MD. But thanks to the thoughtful and kind owners at Med Grill who seriously went to bat for us, it all worked out.
I think it's important for people to know what happened, though, so here goes.
Mirage and Med Grill in Frederick both had dancers.
After Mirage got undercut by a newbie dancer, a phone call was made. I'm not sure by whom or to whom, but it resulted in a day in court for Mirage and Med Grill, in order for Med Grill to be able to continue to have live entertainment.
The phone call was a said to be a customer complaint. The customer told the liquor control board that the dancer "took off her clothes", "danced in her bra" and "danced on the table". A photo was provided (and later shown to the Med Grill dancers). It was a photo of a local dancer who worked at Mirage just once, shortly before the change in dancers. It was a Roger Wood photo taken from her website, she was wearing a Pharaonics of Egypt costume (actually the one she said she wore to Mirage that one night). Not something that could easily be taken for her "bra". This dancer would NOT dance in "her bra" and did NOT dance on the tables there (I asked her).
Now, was this someone with a grievance against another dancer or the venue? Was it a completely ignorant customer? We don't know.
But we DO know that we have to be careful.
If it was merely an ignorant customer it really tells us we have to be very careful about being family friendly with our dancing AND when we are out representing the dance.
It also tells us that there are some WONDERFUL owners out there. They had to deal with a full day in an American court (needless to say English is not their first language) and they shelled out a couple hundred $ in order to have a license for live entertainment. Mohamed told the court "his girls" perform family friendly cultural dance. He and Susan were really quite angry that someone would do this.
The results were that we are not allowed to take costume tips and....get this...we have to keep our costume on and are not allowed to dance in our undergarments.
(well, duh....)
If this had gone differently it could have possible had a ripple effect in other places. As a community we are really very lucky it had a happy ending.
Samira

[RaqOn]

wow.

[Lauren_]

,m::

[tattood1]

*looking irritated* hasn't tina said this could happen?? it could be; a. a pissed off dancer, b. a prudy customer or c. somebody out to get the restaurant. here's the deal..the trouble isn't over this place will now be watched. tina

[tahiradancer]

And the dancers, at least for a while, may wnat to thik about wearing a body net. Because by definition, the top of a bedlah is a bra. Maybe not a lingeria bra as we know it, but someone could make a case (as they were trying to).

The other thing which has me curious is why the person who lodged the complaint didn't have to show up in court? Because we have the right to face our accusers.

Tina - I share your irratation.

{{{HUGS}}}

[shahravar]

Can an anonymous person really take the owners to court? Or was it just a follow up on an anonymous complaint?

[SamiraShuruk]

From what I understand it was a follow up to an anonymous complaint.

[Slave]

oy vei, that sounds like a real bucket of trouble!

thank you so much for posting all of this info with the sad-but-true warning that it could happen elsewhere. it's so frustrating to even read about, i hate think what it must feel like to be involved from any party's perspective
(except for prudy mcignorant customer mcgee - i don't have any sympathy for that chump)

Yuck. I don't want to wear a body net. Just yuck to this whole thing!

[kamilia]

As a second generation Frederick native (woohoo! soy beans!), I have to admit that I relocated to the DC area for more open-minded conversation, foreign culture, etc. When I was growing up, it was a charming place, but conservative. Now, thankfully, the community has been fortunate enough to receive more people of different backgrounds and expand its horizons.

However conservative it may be, I would never say anything bad about Fredericktonians (the proper nomenclature, NOT Frednecks). That is why I don't imagine someone from Frederick going through the trouble of calling the liquor board with lies. Fredericktonians write letters to the Editor at the Frederick News Post or just call the restaurant. They tell their friends about it and don't frequent the establishment in question again. They are boycotters par excellence.

The common customer would not go through this trouble. It couldn't have been a competing venue, either: the only other place in town with dancers had to present itself in court, too. This absurdly pathetic behavior could only have come from someone who knows the dancing business well.

[tattood1]

probably true. my experience tells me it was an insider job. most people no matter how offended wouldn't know who to call. SO let this be a lesson kids if you get pissed at being fired from your MED restaurant job or loosing a job to an undercutting bellybunny YOU do not call da man & complain you might just shut the whole thing down. tina

[MariaAya]

Errrrrrrrr is this for real????
It's just so unreal and ridiculus !!!
Hope in never happen again, to anyone

maria aya

[dunyah]

I just heard about a venue in a nearby town that got shut down because a dancer complained to the business's INSURANCE company about a new contract that the organizer and business owner implemented. I haven't seen the contract but it had stuff like performers may not sit down and eat in costume, even with a cover-up. They must change into street clothes. (This came about because of an incident that involved dancers in costume sitting at a table in the front window and behaving inappropriately. I didn't witness this, so can't comment.)

One of the dancers who was offended by the new rules gave a copy of it to the insurance company. The insurance company told the business owner that because he is not licensed for live entertainment (it's a restaurant), they could no longer insure him if the belly dance shows continued. So after four years they are stopping the shows while this gets worked out. And it was a dancer who did this. ,m::

Always a bad idea to take it out on the restaurant owner! These are nice people who work very hard in a business with a small profit margin. And it was a VERY fun place to dance, it was always packed on dance night and the vibes were so great...cr.:

[tattood1]

yup lil known fact at least here you have to have a lisence to have entertainment. often refered to as a "show" license. entertainment can includes a jukebox too so pretty broadly written. must be displayed by a cash register. tina

[*maria*]

probably true. my experience tells me it was an insider job. most people no matter how offended wouldn't know who to call. SO let this be a lesson kids if you get pissed at being fired from your MED restaurant job or loosing a job to an undercutting bellybunny YOU do not call da man & complain you might just shut the whole thing down. tina

Yup. You gotta know who to talk to - the buracracy's (sp?) are incredible, you can get lost in red tape for years.

My family owns restaurants, (Italian) and crap like this is usually an inside job. In italian restaurant business, it's usually crap with the liquor board

There's a great saying,
"Don't cut your nose off to spite your face"

[zorba]

Just goes to show you (once again) how just ONE "complaint" can ruin the fun for everyone in today's semi-theocratic society. Many/most of us have had to deal with this kind of nonsense at one time or another.

I'm *VERY* glad it was worked out this time! ..g.:

[*maria*]

BTW, undercutters suck!