The Knoxville Beer Board referred Buckethead Tavern to an administrative hearing on Nov. 28 after members concluded the establishment’s remedial plan did not adequately address two underage-sale citations.

Troy Hale, who identified himself as a former owner and representative for Buckethead Tavern (8039 Raymeers Boulevard), said the two citations occurred on Alabama game days in different years and stemmed from employee error during busy shifts. He told the board the business has a 14-year history with 12 years free of citations, has adopted mandatory training for new front-of-house employees through the Metro Drug Coalition course, and requires certification for servers, managers and bartenders. Hale said new ownership (owner-financed, with Trey Carroll as the new owner) had recently taken over and was implementing additional measures.

Board members raised concerns about the remedial plan’s lack of operational specifics. Councilman Roberto said the plan’s ongoing-education section listed only quarterly reviews and recommended more frequent shift-level briefings, a secret-shopper program, and an ID-scanning point-of-sale system. Officer Presley clarified policy on service: if a beverage is placed in front of an underage person and ID is then checked, that constitutes service under law; in one incident, plainclothes officers and cadets were involved and the officer who filed the report relayed that the patron was not ID’d.

Councilman Roberto moved to send the matter to a hearing officer for a formal administrative hearing under chapter 4 of the code; Councilman Thomas seconded. The transcript records the vote as "7 in favor, 2 against." The board’s legal staff said if the hearing officer proceeds, the law department would file the noncompliance complaint and the formal hearing would be conducted out of the beer board’s hands.

Hale told the board he had paid fines related to the incidents and had already initiated employee recertification and pre-shift briefings; he said the business would pursue suggested improvements such as secret-shopper checks and scanning software. The board’s referral means the law department will determine the formal parties required to appear at the administrative hearing and draft the noncompliance complaint under chapter 4.