[420 Girl]

The fate of the sandwich and beer in downtown Greeley will soon be in the hands of a Weld District Court judge.

Scott Jennings, who owns the recently opened Cheba Hut at 1645 8th Ave., and his attorney, Maria Liu, appealed his shop’s liquor license denial this week in a 26-page pleading.

Greeley’s municipal judge, Robert Frick, acting in his capacity as the city’s liquor licensing authority, denied Cheba Hut’s application to sell beer and wine to patrons on April 13. That was due in large part to the marijuana theme of the restaurant in which 25 sandwiches had names alluding to the drug.

According to Liu’s pleading, Frick asked Jennings if he was a “frequent or chronic user of marijuana” and if he intended to perform drug and alcohol testing of his employees.

“I would be surprised if he asked others the same questions,” said Liu in a telephone interview. “I’m really concerned he disagreed with the marketing theme and based his decision on his emotions and opinion.”

In Greeley, the only two considerations for liquor licenses is a neighborhood’s wants and needs and good moral character of the applicant.

In his eight-page finding, Frick noted that Jennings and his wife have clean histories, but the manager of the shop had two previous drinking-and-driving-related offenses. Jennings said that employee will not manage the Greeley shop. Reports from Boulder and Fort Collins police, where there are other Cheba Huts, one which sells alcohol, have had no citations or troubles, the ruling noted.

Jennings opened his shop that week, anyway, minus the beer or wine he’d hoped to serve. He opened to large crowds on April 20, when he sold sandwich combinations for $4.20.

“He basically has learned how to distinguish himself in a novel, unique, First Amendment-protected way,” Liu said Thursday. “It’s not illegal to talk about marijuana, it’s not illegal to publish a menu that references marijuana in its sandwich names. It’s not illegal to order a sandwich that has the name.”

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