The St. Mary’s County Alcohol Beverage Board ordered a Lexington Park restaurant closed for a week and fined two local businesses a combined $2,500 following separate hearings into underage sales of alcohol and vape products, according to the board’s Sept. 10 meeting.
Mi Tierra Restaurant Corp., at 21591 Great Mills Road, drew the harsher penalty. Board attorney Christopher Beaver told the board that on July 21, at about 6:25 p.m., the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office sent a 19-year-old confidential informant into the restaurant after receiving a complaint alleging that juveniles were being served alcohol there. The informant, dressed in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt and accompanied by a plainclothes deputy, ordered a 12-ounce bottle of Corona Extra at the bar. A bartender identified as Julio Paiz served the beer without asking for identification, age or date of birth, according to the facts read into the record. A deputy monitoring the operation stepped in immediately afterward; because Paiz had difficulty communicating in English, one of the restaurant’s licensees, Septiembre E. Arevalo Matute, was reached by phone to translate.
Co-licensee Amado A. Gonzalez told the board that Paiz, normally a cook, was working the bar alone that day after the scheduled server failed to show up and stopped answering her phone. Gonzalez said he was at the company’s second restaurant in Takoma Park, roughly two hours away, when the sale happened. He told the board Mi Tierra has voluntarily stayed closed since early September while retraining its staff, with several employees still awaiting certification.
Board members pressed Gonzalez on staffing and oversight, noting the restaurant received its license only in April and that members who voted to approve it had been assured underage sales would not happen. The board settled on a $1,250 fine against the licensees, with $500 due immediately and $750 held in abeyance contingent on no further violations, plus a seven-day suspension of the restaurant’s entire operation beginning Sept. 10 — the same penalty structure the board used in a 2024 case that shuttered a St. Mary’s County business over a nearly identical violation. The board separately fined Paiz $50 as an employee-level penalty. Mi Tierra’s suspension is set to lift Thursday, Sept. 17, the same day the sanction was announced to run through.
In a separate hearing, the board fined Rod N Reel Hunting & Fishing Supplies, an unrelated business located at 18161 Three Notch Road in Lexington Park — not to be confused with the Rod ‘N’ Reel Resort and Restaurant in Chesapeake Beach — $1,250 over a tobacco sale to a minor. Beaver told the board that on May 20, at about 5:39 p.m., a Sheriff’s Office alcohol enforcement unit sent a 19-year-old confidential informant into the store as part of a tobacco compliance check. A store clerk, identified as James R. Hall, sold the informant a Geek Bar Pulse Blue Raz disposable vape without checking identification. Hall was cited on scene and later pleaded guilty in St. Mary’s County District Court on July 28 before Judge Robert B. Riddle.
Store owner Shahid Mahmood, appearing before the board with co-licensee Samina Saeed, said he was not present for the sale and that Hall — who remains employed at the store — told him he simply forgot to check the customer’s age. Mahmood, who has owned the business for five years, said it was the store’s first violation. The case surfaces amid a broader county debate this year over how tightly to regulate vape and tobacco retailers. The board fined the business $1,250, with $500 due within 10 business days and $750 held in abeyance pending a second violation; unlike Mi Tierra, no suspension of operations was ordered.
Both businesses have 30 days from the hearing to appeal the board’s decisions to the Circuit Court for St. Mary’s County.
The two violation hearings came during an otherwise routine meeting in which the board approved a new license for Boone’s Bagels in Leonardtown, approved the transfer of the Fenwick Inn’s liquor license to new owners, granted a temporary extension to Elks Lodge #2092 for a Sept. 26 car show fundraiser, and approved an officer change at Moose Lodge 495. Deputy Steve Myers also reported that August compliance sweeps found the vast majority of county businesses checking identification properly — continuing a pattern of high pass rates the board has reported for several years.
