KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The City of Knoxville's Beer Board revoked Hatmaker's Bar and Grill's beer license during a pre-hearing conference on Tuesday.
The hearing officer for the Beer Board, Celeste Herbert, granted the city's motion for a default judgment. In essence, it revoked the bar's beer license.
City Attorney Alyson Dyer said the city submitted a formal complaint to the Knoxville Beer Board. The city's rules require a response from the bar.
Hatmaker's owner Jason Hatmaker did not submit a satisfactory answer, according to the hearing officer, so she granted the city's motion for default. In the hearing, Hatmaker repeated he received bad legal advice and tried to formulate a response himself, without an attorney.
"I evidently have got some bad legal advice, because nobody was willing to take the case," Hatmaker said.
In its motion for a default judgment, the city said it filed a non-compliance complaint on July 5, 2022, which would revoke the beer permit for Hatmaker's Bar and Grill.
In response, the city's attorney said Hatmaker "delivered seven pages of documents," and that stack of documents "does not constitute an 'answer' in any form of substance."
The city requested the hearing officer enter a judgment revoking Hatmaker's Bar and Grill's beer permit and require the owner to pay the costs for the hearing, which was granted.
The city requested the Beer Board revoke Hatmaker's Bar and Grill's beer permit because the owners allowed "the establishment to be operated in a disorderly manner," the complaint said.
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspended Hatmaker's Bar and Grill's liquor-by-the-drink license in May, according to the city's documents. That license covers alcoholic beverages with more than 8% alcohol by volume. The city's beer board regulates alcoholic beverages below that concentration.
City ordinances said once an establishment's beer license is revoked, they can't get it back for 10 years.