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Board grants Counterclocks transfer in Berlin but bars liquor 'lockers' and limits live entertainment
Summary
The board approved transfer of the Borahave license to Counterclocks LLC with conditions: the business must make itself legal immediately with 70 table seats, live entertainment restricted to one floor at a time, only one shuffleboard, and requested liquor lockers (customer-owned 'lockers') were denied under current regulations.
The Worcester County Board of License Commissioners on April 23 approved a license transfer that will allow Counterclocks LLC to operate a restaurant at 104 North Main Street in Berlin, but commissioners rejected the applicants’ request to offer customer liquor "lockers," citing county regulations that restrict sales and service practices.
Under the motion the board approved, Counterclocks must make itself legal immediately by ensuring the required 70 seats at tables are available and comply with other licensing conditions. The board granted the transfer with the same entertainment privileges as the prior license except it limited the new licensee to one shuffleboard game and ordered that live entertainment be used on only one floor at a time. The board explicitly said there would be no lockers as part of the license as county regulations prohibit the proposed pre-purchase bottle/locker model for liquor sales.
Applicant testimony described Counterclocks as an American, casual restaurant with a two-story layout intended to provide both everyday dining and private-event space upstairs. Co-owner Patrice Hamilton Adi described the menu as "American," and explained the locker idea as a way for regular customers to rent a locked liquor cabinet whose contents would remain on-site and be served only by staff.
County licensing staff and at least one commissioner explained the regulatory concern: existing county rules prohibit selling more than two drinks at one time and do not allow the kind of pre-purchased, bottle-in-locker arrangement that would effectively deliver more than two drinks per patron at once. The board noted wine is treated differently under state law and that a wine-cabinet model might be addressed separately, but said the current request for liquor lockers conflicted with county regulation and would not be approved.
The board also discussed the floor-seat requirement. The property’s prior license had conditions (a requested upstairs bar previously granted but not implemented within six months) and the applicants agreed to ensure 70 seats at tables were available immediately; the board recorded applicants’ assurances that they would bring seating into compliance the same day.
The board’s motion was seconded and the transfer was approved with the outlined conditions. Staff told the applicants to contact the county investigator to finalize the license paperwork and to schedule any inspections required to open additional upstairs space in the future.
The approval lets Counterclocks operate under the county’s Class B-style privileges with restricted entertainment and without the proposed liquor-locker program; staff said the applicants can reapply later if they seek a different arrangement (for example, a wine-cabinet program), but any future change must comply with county regulations and return to the board for review.
