Microbrews, artisan sausage, and for dessert ... cocaine?
Authorities say the owner of the in downtown, Eden Beloved Noe, had introduced her own secret add-ons to the menu, including cocaine and marijuana.
A special investigation last spring by the vice squad in partnership with the state Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control resulted in her arrest—and in the stripping of her permit to sell beer and wine.
A notice of indefinite suspension was posted on the Ale House's front windows Dec. 6. It will not be reinstated until ABC approves the license's transfer to someone new, said spokesman John Carr.
Noe, then 32 and a resident of Westchester, was taken into custody the morning of April 21. Santa Monica police officers pulled her over not far from the restaurant at 129 Broadway and informed her that she had a warrant out for her arrest.
While searching the vehicle, they allege, they found cocaine in the trunk.
Because of the "confidential ways that we do things," police Sgt. Richard Lewis revealed few details about the investigation that had prompted the warrant.
"We received information that she was selling narcotics from that location," he said of the Ale House. "An arrest warrant was sought, she was arrested and narcotics were uncovered.... I don't know how much weight she was moving."
About a month later, Noe got into trouble with authorities again.
According to Carr, on May 13, Noe sold alcohol to an underage minor decoy.
As a result of both incidents, "ABC posted a 30-day suspension indefinitely until the current owners have transferred the license to someone else who is acceptable to the ABC," Carr said.
Charges are still pending against Noe in Los Angeles County Superior Court, although two of the three drug-related ones filed in May have been dismissed.
During the seventh-month span between her arrest in April and the suspension in December, Carr said, the ABC was "dotting its I's and crossing its T's.”
"She has the right to due process," he said.
Noe opened the Ale House, originally called the Fifth Amendment, in 2009. She was not reachable by email or phone.
Comments about the restaurant on the online review site Yelp are mixed. Disgruntled customers complained of bad service (including drunken waitresses and distracted bartenders). Beer aficionados were pleased to have found a place that served Stone, Ballast Point and Allagash on draft.
