The War of Rosa’s
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Rosa’s well-publicized troubles began back in May 1993 when a part-time bartender, Vera Smith, was arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover cop. The timing of the bust couldn’t have been worse: the city’s free blues festival, “the three most important days of the year for a blues club,” according to Mangiullo, was less than two weeks away. The Mayor’s Office of Special Events barred Rosa’s from participating in the fest, at which it had sold T-shirts and handed out promotional material for the preceding five years, and the LLCC shut down the bar for seven days. Mangiullo, claiming that the fest jumped the gun in booting Rosa’s before it had even been closed, attempted to get a court order to lift the ban, but failed.
Rosa’s appealed the decision. The License Appeal Commission ruled that the LLCC had treated the bar unfairly in not allowing sufficient time to find Smith, and ordered a new hearing. Smith, who by this time had been convicted, testified that she had sold the coke without the knowledge or approval of her employers, but the LLCC came to the same conclusion as before. When Rosa’s appealed the decision again, the LAC ruled that the revocation displayed “abusive discretion” and suggested that a seven-day suspension would suffice
The performances donated this weekend–including those by Willie Kent, Big Time Sarah, Byther Smith, and Pinetop Perkins–will be recorded for a future CD.
