A NY Mexican Spot Got Busted For Serving Booze to Almost 50 Teenagers in One Night

It's National Margarita Day today, and you won't have a better excuse all year to kick back with enormous, neon-green slushies at your local Mexican spot after work. If said spot is Dahlia's Fine Mexican Cuisine in New York City's East Village, though, you probably won't find what you're looking for: The restaurant recently had its liquor license revoked after cops busted the joint with nearly 50 teenagers inside pounding down "monster margaritas" and mojitos.

Cops raided the East Village bar Dahlia's on January 30 after receiving a call complaining about underage drinking, and when they arrived they found 43 teenagers under the age of 18 throwing back margs. Five 16-year-olds and one 15-year-old were among the crowd.

The cops later hit Dahlia's with 55 citations, according to The New York Post, including sales to minors, exceeding maximum capacity, and having locked doors. The holder of the liquor license and five waiters were arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal nuisance, and unlawfully dealing with a child. The state subsequently revoked the restaurant's liquor license.

"In addition to demonstrating a total disregard for the law by blatantly catering to minors, this licensee further jeopardized the health and safety of these young patrons by crowding them into a locked bar to avoid detection by law enforcement," State Liquor Authority Chairman Vincent Bradley said.

The Post reports the "well-heeled" teens were mostly from wealthy Westchester suburbs like Scarsdale and Larchmont. Dahlia's had long been known as a place that wouldn't card customers and would serve minors. As one Yelper put it, the restaurant was "full of drunk kids (really they looked and acted quite young)!" The Yelper also described the bathroom as "traumatizing."

The fate of the restaurant Dahlia's is uncertain. Unable to serve alcohol, it will be hard for the restaurant to compete in a neighborhood with extremely pricey rents. Further stacking the odds against them, apparently the food wasn't Dahlia's main draw.

"The fact that they're only going to be serving food now doesn't bode well, because the food was pretty awful," a former patron who had been drinking at Dahlia's since she was 15-years-old told Gothamist.

Dahlia's is not currently answering the phone, and a message sent to the restaurant's Facebook page wasn't replied to by press time.

No word on the fate of the kids who got busted, but their Snapchat privileges are probably revoked for at least a week. The story serves as a timely reminder that if you are going to pour giant margaritas into your head tonight, at least get a good fake ID first.