Owner of former $3 Bar gets liquor license for new restaurant

July 14, 2016 6:59 pm

By: Rebecca Turco

Email: rturco@abc6.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Providence businessman with prior restaurant and bar ventures cloaked in controversy has been granted a liquor license for his latest establishment.

The Providence Board of Licenses voted to approve the license for Blend, a Latin restaurant and hookah bar on De Pasquale Avenue, pending a 60-day review.

Owner Gianfranco Marrocco, who owns several restaurants on Federal Hill, previously owned the $3 Bar, which was shut down three years ago after a Glocester man was killed during a fight behind the property. He also co-owned Club Karma, which lost its liquor license in 2014 after two shootings inside the dance club.

Two Federal Hill business owners and a Jewelry District Association member alluded to this prior violence during the hearing, when they urged the board to look more into Marrocco’s past.

“Unfortunately, it’s a crazy world,” Marrocco told reporters after the hearing. “Something could happen as we are speaking right now. Someone could come by and shoot all of us. There are things just beyond our control."

Marrocco was also the subject of a federal investigation for failing to pay overtime to nearly 150 workers at his different properties. He was ordered last year to pay them back more than $300,000.

Board member Johanna Harris encouraged her fellow commissioners to look more into Marrocco’s past. She was the sole “no” vote for the license.

Marrocco told reporters he has millions of dollars on the line and personal ties to the property, so safety is his priority. "I’m a landlord, I’m a tenant myself and I work there, so I have to protect my own property."

Marrocco still has state inspections and reviews to complete before the restaurant can open and be subject to review.