La Cueva Restaurant & Tavern owner Antonio Layton accused of not being transparent by Alderwoman Zamarripa, the Chairperson of the Licenses Committee.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
January 28, 2025
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council Licenses Committee voted unanimously not to renew La Cueva Restaurant & Tavern license citing multiple prior incidents involving fights, shootings, a stabbing, a minor being served inside, a bartender serving patrons that didn't have a license to bartend, selling illegal tabacco and liquor bottle setups without a license, having contaminated liquor, hiring felons on paper as bouncers and the list goes on..., according to over an hour of testimony by police, and neighbors opposing a renewal of the City Tavern Class B license.
La Cueva was approved a Class B Tavern license in 2024, which farmented malt beverages (beer) should be sold, it didn't have a Class A license to sell intoxicating liquor at the premises.
Markos López, the owner of the building at 2537 W. National Ave. filed an eviction notice against La Cueva, which Attorney Vincent Bobot who represents Layton says, that they are challenging the eviction. Testimony from the building owner indicated that La Cueva still owes money for the water bill and that La Cueva was a month behind the rent, but is up to date in rent payment.
López says, that La Cueva attempted to rent their kitchen to a food truck operation, which would be in violation of the rental lease.
Police testified that on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 12:44 a.m. they went to investigate complaints of parking congestion, and when police first parked to investigate, they saw several groups of patrons (15 individuals each group) leaving La Cueva Restaurant & Tavern before police entered the establishment and did a head count of 96 patrons inside. A police officer told the Committee, if they would have entered La Cueva 5 minutes earlier, they would have found an over capacity tavern.
Police Officer Anton Powell also testified that on December 31, 2024, New Year's Eve, they went to La Cueva Restaurant and found an over capacity at the tavern, which capacity was 99, but several counts by police confirmed an over capacity and shut down the tavern, one count done inside registered 162 patrons and second one done while patrons were exiting resulted with more 182 patrons.
A social media (Facebook) video was shown to Committee members where a huge brawl took place in front of La Cueva in June 2024, which staff nor security called police. Police later were able to acquire outdoor video surveillance footage from the adjacent El Toro Taquería restaurant. Ald. Zamarripa introduced a Facebook video showing the same brawl between several women.
Alderperson Zamarripa from the 8th Aldermanic District where La Cueva is located asked Layton, if the tavern was offering bottle service, he admitted that champagne bottles were offered on New Year's Eve, but had stopped months earlier.
Ald. Zamarripa accused Layton of not running a full service restaurant, but rather running a nightclub, and not well run, which several social media videos inside the premises were shown to Committee members to support her allegation.
Ald. Zamarripa also placed on the record that several days ago, Kurtis Peterson, the alleged manager (co-owner) of La Cueva posted on his personal Facebook account a post saying "Guest bottle girls," which La Cueva doesn't have a license to offer. During the testimony, Layton admitted that Peterson and him live at the same address in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
Ald. Zamarripa claimed that she moved not to new La Cueva's license because Layton had been ingenious and untruthful to her and members of the Committee.
Attorney Vicent Bobot who represented Layton told the Committee that he was unaware that liquor bottles were being sold inside La Cueva.
The Licenses Committee unanimously agreed with Ald. Zamarripa for non-renewal due to the preponderance of the evidence, police report, residents testimony and the applicants own testimony that demonstrates the operations resulted that La Cueva was not run as a full service restaurant, but run as a nightclub and not run well, and it was a threat to health, safety and the welfare of the public citing excess battery, assaults and other incidents at the premises.
The Licenses Committee non-renewal of La Cueva's license goes before the full Milwaukee Common Council on February 11, 2025.
Link: Hearing video for La Cueva Restaurant & Tavern https://milwaukee.granicus.com/player/clip/4424?view_id=2&meta_id=3541677&redirect=true
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