No Revise of Rules on Sale of Korean Liquor

The Korean drink known as soju will not be served in most restaurants because city officials have decided to uphold rules that limit the sale of the liquor in Garden Grove.

Two Korean restaurants, San Soo Gap San Restaurant and New Seoul B.B.Q. Buffet Restaurant, both on Garden Grove Boulevard, requested in February that their beer and wine licenses be upgraded so that diners could enjoy the traditional alcoholic beverage. Soju, similar to sake, is considered a distilled spirit under state guidelines.

After denying the requests this year, officials scheduled a review of policies governing the sale of beer, wine and hard liquor in restaurants. At a session last week, City Council members voted not to change the rules.

There are nine restaurants with hard liquor licenses and 23 with beer and wine licenses in Garden Grove’s Korean Business District along Garden Grove Boulevard from Brookhurst Street to Beach Boulevard.

“Hard liquor sales have a higher crime rate,” said Lt. Bill Johnson of the Garden Grove Police Department.

Johnson said that, from January 1995 to June 1997, police received more than twice as many calls from restaurants with hard liquor sales as from those offering only beer and wine.

In support of existing city ordinances, Mayor Bruce Broadwater said, “I have no qualms leaving it the way it is.”