Popular open-air student hangout Grotto Mojito, at the top end of High Street, closed down last Monday after a drawn-out dispute with the Eastern Cape Liquor Board relating to complications with the venue’s liquor licence.
Popular open-air student hangout Grotto Mojito, at the top end of High Street, closed down last Monday after a drawn-out dispute with the Eastern Cape Liquor Board relating to complications with the venue’s liquor licence.
The correct procedures for transferral of the liquor licence were not followed when the business – formerly Café Blanca – was sold to Jan Strydom early last year by landlady Wendy Maxwell.
According to Section 25 of the Eastern Cape Liquor Act, transferral of the ownership of a liquor licence can only take place once a formal application has been approved and a certificate of transfer is issued in the prescribed manner by the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, which did not happen.
A notice issued to Strydom by the Eastern Cape Liquor Board in March this year stated: “Each certificate of registration is in respect of specified premises and it is accordingly clear that the registered person and the specified premises must be those reflected in the certificate. A liquor licence is not a commodity which is readily marketable to be leased or sold.
“Any transactions of this nature is in contravention of the Eastern Cape Liquor Act and therefore illegal. The Board will not entertain applications where a certificate of registration has been treated as a commodity and has formed part of a sale of business transaction.”
Strydom purchased Maxwells restaurant and Café Blanca in February last year, and re-opened the businesses as the Grub Grog and Grotto Mojito respectively, on 1 March 2011. But Strydom closed Grub Grog after last year’s National Arts Festival, due to viability concerns, and started operating his other business, Pronto Driving School, from the premises.
Grotto Mojito continued to trade. Meanwhile, in the midst of the legal complications Maxwell and Strydom have not been able to reach a suitable agreement for a new lease. With the closure of Grotto Mojito, Strydom has now moved Pronto Driving School to African Street, just above the traffic circle.
“I met many amazing people while running Grotto Mojito. It had been a dream of mine for a long time. The students kept us young!” he said on Wednesday.
“It was a great experience, but it is a relief to move on now.” Grotto Mojito, well-known for its cheap cocktails and easygoing atmosphere, played host to a wide variety of events, such as the Singing for Soup fundraisers, 21st parties, poetry evenings and Rhodes society parties.
Christopher Maxwell, son of Wendy and former manager of Café Blanca, told Grocott’s Mail yesterday that Maxwells and Café Blanca will be re-opening temporarily for the Arts Festival, but will close thereafter to make way for new business tenants.
He could not confirm what kind of businesses will operate on the premises.
