Bad bar wants licence back

By David Carrigg-Staff writer

The owner of a notorious caf‚ on Kingsway wants to reopen, despite losing her business licence late last year after a string of bylaw infractions.

Nhan Hong Doan, doing business as Caf‚ Da Kao at 960 Kingsway, was stripped of her licence in November, based on evidence from the Vancouver Fire Department, Vancouver Police Department and the city's business licence inspectors.

The list of infractions included allowing smoking on the premises, serving alcohol after hours, serving alcohol to drunk patrons, allowing karaoke without a permit and failing to control the conduct of staff and patrons at the cafe.

Const. Wayne Windrim, the VPD's problem premises coordinator, said the caf‚ was also a known hangout for Vietnamese gangs. Between April 2001 and November 2003, when the cafe closed, police were called to the site about 80 times.

At council's Nov. 18 business licence hearing, Doan was represented by lawyer Michael Golden. Doan's defence was that she found it difficult to control patrons and the business was needed to support her family.

Windrim said it's unusual for a business stripped of its licence to try and get it back so soon. "Council came down pretty hard on them, so to come back so quickly is unusual," he said, pointing out the caf‚ also lost its liquor licence. "Even if they got the city business licence back, they would still have to deal with the liquor licensing board."

The business licence hearing is set for Jan. 27.