An onerous city licensing procedure is tripping up small businesses with big fines, business owners complained at a City Hall hearing on Monday.
Among the more than two dozen New Orleans businesses facing fines over delinquent local liquor license renewals this week were many prominent names, from the International House Hotel to the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club. Both of those agreed to pay the city $2,600 to settle.
But then there was Plume Algiers, a tiny Indian restaurant in Algiers, whose husband-and-wife owners say that paying the $4,800 in fines before them will put them out of business…