16 LAKESIDE
June 2021
Recalling the story of a unique business model I grew up in a small New Jersey seacoast town. Due to its proximity to Manhattan, it had been a summer resort since the mid 1800s. The year-round population of about 2,500 swelled to over 8,000 in the summer months. A hotel was established right on the waterfront at the turn of the last century. It was in a great location with a large parking lot, and it had a liquor license. Then in the mid 1970s, after a slow summer season the old hotel burned to the ground. This freed up a much sought after and hard to get liquor license. Since the township would not issue any new licenses, the only way to get one was to buy one that already existed. Then an entrepreneur proposed to buy the property including the license. He had purchased a large barge at auction for next to nothing and wanted to moor it to the property’s waterfront. This barge had been converted into a floating restaurant with a nautical theme. I happened to be on the Township Variance Board at the time. What the new owner would need was a variance to transfer the hotel’s liquor license to the barge
moored on front of the restaurant. He drove around in a Bentley Vinnie when he wasn’t riding his fully Mendes tricked-out Harley. Eventually other good restauOn the rants opened near him and the Water novelty of dining on a barge wore off. Foul weather led to several bad tourist seasons in a row and he fell on hard times. Business even though it would be floating was failing to the point where his and not actually on town propsuppliers put him on a C.O.D. erty. After some negotiation, he basis. The last straw was when got the variance with the stipula- the company who leased him the tion that the barge be taxed as if it credit card machines took them were an actual structure on town all back! property. At this point he decided it was I was the only dissenting vote time for drastic measures and because I recommended that the adopted the John DeLorean barge owner post a bond so the method of saving the business. town would not have to pay for (“Sure, I enjoy Pepsi but Coke’s its removal if the restaurant went the Real Thing!”) He worked a defunct and the barge was abandeal with some drug smugglers to doned. The other board members take his sport fisherman out besaw only increased tax revenues yond the 12-mile limit and pick and employment for some towns- up a cargo of what he thought people, so I was out voted. would be cocaine. He was also Well, the restaurant was a supposed to bring out a cargo of great success for several years supplies to provision the ship for and the owner went wild flauntits trip back to wherever it came ing that success. He purchased from. lots of toys, including a 72-foot He showed up at the rensailboat and a 65-foot sport fishdezvous point loaded down with erman which he kept on display groceries and made contact with
the other ship. As soon as he was secured to the side of this larger vessel, even before he could unload the supplies he had brought, the crew began to throw bales of marijuana down on his deck! He tried desperately to stop them but it seems none of them spoke English! Pretty soon he was overloaded. The boat began taking on water and was in danger of sinking! At this point the other vessel cast off their lines and took off for parts unknown at high speed. There was no alternative but to send out a “Mayday” call to the U.S. Coast Guard and wait for assistance. When they arrived, they found a half-sunk boat floating around amid a bunch of bales of marijuana and one very scared guy frantically bailing with a five-gallon bucket. I do not know
which would be worse: explaining what he was doing to the Coast Guard or explaining it to the drug dealers. When everything was finally sorted out, he wound up in the slammer and all his fancy toys were seized and sold at auction. The restaurant sat vacant for a few years until the barge finally sank and the township had to pay to have it floated and towed off to the scrap yard. By then I was no longer involved with town government, so I didn’t even get a chance to say, “I warned you!” Mendes has been sailing all his life and on Lake Lanier for the past 25 years. His family owns a marina/bar/restaurant so he has plenty of real life experiences to draw from. His favorite line: “You can’t make this stuff up.”
ENJOY A SAFE SUMMER ON THE LAKE
