Several local eateries under businessman Gerald Peters’ Santa Fe Dining umbrella have seen their liquor licenses expire with no apparent timeline for reinstatement.
A spokeswoman for the state Regulation and Licensing Department, which oversees the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, confirmed to The New Mexican last week liquor licenses for Santa Fe Dining’s Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen, Rio Chama Prime Steakhouse, La Casa Sena, Hidden Mountain Brewing Co. and Rooftop Pizzeria & Draft Station expired June 30. As of Monday afternoon, that was still the case, department spokeswoman Andrea Brown said.
Rooftop Pizzeria & Draft Station, which opened in 2004 and was located at the Santa Fe Arcade on the Plaza, closed last summer.
Multiple calls and voicemails to Santa Fe Dining officials seeking comment were not returned Friday and Monday.
Brown said the division “is in receipt of renewal applications for these licenses,” but said “deficiencies” remain that need to be resolved before it can renew the licenses.
Asked what those deficiencies are, Brown said the division is awaiting documentation the liquor licenses for those establishments are compliant with state Taxation and Revenue Department requirements, saying she didn’t have more information on what the compliance issues are.
But she added “alcoholic beverages cannot be sold or served until the licenses are renewed.”
Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman Charlie Moore declined to comment on the compliance issues for the Santa Fe Dining restaurants noted by Brown and the Regulation and Licensing Department, citing state confidentiality laws.
The expired licenses for Peters’ restaurants are another chapter in issues parts of his business empire have faced in just the past few months. In April, a jury awarded $31 million to a woman who slipped and fell in the Maria’s parking lot in 2019, sustaining severe injuries.
In June, Peters and his wife, Kathleen Peters, were named in two separate lawsuits filed in First Judicial District Court — one seeking to foreclose on the Santa Fe Arcade property and another alleging the two defaulted on a $2.8 million loan from regional bank WestStar.
The Maria’s property also was also listed for sale last month with a $4 million price tag. But a day after The New Mexican ran a story on the listing, Santa Fe Properties President and Qualifying Broker Matt Desmond said the listing was a “clerical error.”
