california business alcohol
Over-serving an intoxicated customer
<p>I work for a cafe in Southern California. Recently a guest purchased five <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_(cocktail)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">mimosa cocktails</a> over an hour time period, three of which were ordered within 20 minutes. The guest was by themselves the entire time so I have no reason to believe they were sharing the drinks with a friend.</p>

<p>When I approached my management on cutting off the guest they simply returned with a "They're fine". However, according to our alcohol training, we know this to be incorrect. Furthermore, several of the drinks were poured by a minor.</p>

<p>How and to whom should I go about reporting this?</p>

<p>The criteria for refusing service in California is the patron being “obviously drunk”. 5 150ml mimosas is not a lot, even in an hour - it has approximately the same alcohol content as 2 425ml beers. I certainly wouldn’t be “obviously drunk” after that.</p>

<p>Only 18 year olds and over can serve or act as bartenders for on-premises consumption. Whether someone under 18 can pour drinks for someone else to serve is not clear. However, it’s probably ok as the legislative intention appears to be to put a responsible adult at the point of service.</p>

<p>The government authority responsible is <a href="https://www.abc.ca.gov" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Alcoholic Beverage Control</a>.</p>
