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Ward 5 ANC Meeting Motions to Stop Full Yum

Full Yum’s future was on the table at last night’s Ward 5 Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting. The carryout restaurant located on North Capitol N.E/ is applying to get a Class A liquor license, but the commissioners voted against it. The community members, in the cafeteria of Community Public School, agreed.

In a unanimous vote of eight people, ANC 5C voted in favor of the motion “oppose the application of the Full Yum Carryout Restaurant for a retail Class A liquor license.”

There were no representatives from Full Yum present.

“Everybody on every corner cannot sell liquor; we have enough liquor stores,” said Commissioner Sylvia Pinkley, who has been serving on the ANC for two years. “The community is trying to move towards sit-down restaurants.”

If Full Yum’s application is approved, the business will become the third liquor store on North Capitol N.E. between Florida and New York Avenue. In June 2011, the Commission voted to oppose the same for Capitol Food Mart, located on North Capitol N.W. within a two-block radius of numerous liquor stores. With the Class A license, establishments that are not sit-down restaurants, full-service liquor stores or grocery stores will be allowed to sell liquor for drinking off of the premises, giving them a liquor store license. Community members are worried that this will add even more questionable activity to the atmosphere outside Full Yum.

Ward 5 community member Joyce Paul, who sometimes goes to Full Yum for lunch, said you can go there anytime and see six to eight young people, usually males, hanging out inside or outside of the carryout restaurant cursing, yelling and sometimes begging for money.

“Full Yum does not have control of their facility,” Paul said. “That is the main problem.” She said she has asked Full Yum to better the atmosphere around their restaurant for customer safety, but they told her “it’s not their responsibility.”

Commissioner Silas Grant said when establishments like this get liquor licenses it creates a convenient, and illegal, place for the consumption of alcohol right outside.

Robert Brannum, chair of the 5th District Citizen Advisory Council, said if the community is opposed to the license then the CAC, a panel that is provided by each police district to be a liaison to the district commander for information on public safety and police service needs, supports the community’s right to protest.

“The owners are safe from all of this because they have a glass-encased window, but I asked them to take it down,” Paul said. “If we’re unsafe then they should be unsafe, too. Nobody is looking out for us.”