More Troubles for Garden Grove’s Lamplighter : Bar’s Customers Convert It Into a Carry-Out

Those with a preference for beer and wine, go-go girls, pocket billiards, television and jukeboxes might have found the Lamplighter tavern in east Garden Grove a good place to carry on. Trouble is, police say, customers got carried away.

Since January, 1984, officers have had to go to the bar about 130 times and have made 40 arrests for public intoxication, assault, narcotics violations and public nudity, said Police Lt. Ken Adair, a supervisor with the department’s special investigations unit.

“That’s been the worst bar we’ve got,” Adair said. “At least in that part of town.”

Police have failed in their attempts to close the bar at 8575 Garden Grove Blvd. But on Tuesday night customers may have done the job for them.

Place Torn Apart

On the eve of a public hearing on the city’s attempt to revoke the Lamplighter’s conditional use permit, customers at the bar tore the place apart, making off with anything they could carry, including the juke box, beer kegs, 18 pool cues, 22 bar stools, 10 neon signs, two cash registers, two television sets and a satellite TV dish antenna, police said.

And what they couldn’t carry, they destroyed. They punched holes in the walls, ripped apart the billiard tables and chairs and tore a hole in the water heater.

“When our guys got there the place was totally trashed,” Police Sgt. Bruce Beauchamp said. “Anything of any value was gone.”

Adair said the officers “told me they were sloshing around in an inch and a half of water.”

Investigators don’t know who was managing the place or how many customers were inside during the riot and looting. But the last two customers leaving the Lamplighter were nabbed as they walked out the door, each allegedly carting a keg of beer, Adair said.

Booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of possession of stolen property were Gary Pat Kay, 30, and Keith Allen Small, 26, both of Garden Grove. Bail was set at $10,000 each.

At Wednesday’s hearing, owner Glen Grey and his attorney, Richard Blum, asked for a postponement so they could sort out what Blum called a “complicated matter.” Zoning Administrator E. John Graichen set the matter over to Oct. 4.

Neighbors Complain

Blum told Graichen the Lamplighter would be closed at least until the city decides whether to revoke the conditional use permit, which allows the sale of beer and wine.

About six residents living behind the bar attended the hearing but because of the postponement did not have a chance to testify.

One of them, Andy Noland, said the noise and traffic from the bar have been plaguing him for several years.

“They raise hell all night long,” Noland said. “They keep throwing booze bottles over the fence. I throwed ‘em back.”

Margaret Lindsey, who owns an apartment building behind the bar, said her tenants constantly complain about noise.

Edward Mimiaga, a supervisor in the Santa Ana office of the state Alcohol and Beverage Commission, said his agency has been investigating allegations about the Lamplighter, but he declined further comment.