A restaurant in downtown Columbia promises luxury dining, but for more than a year, patrons have been unable to order cocktails or a glass of wine to go with their steak and salmon because the South Carolina Department of Revenue refused to issue a liquor sales license to the business.
The Department of Revenue said it was unable to approve the license due to past liquor violations and unresolved questions about the agency’s ownership. The establishment recently changed hands, although no money was transacted.
Now, a judge will decide whether the state was right to deny the license or whether the restaurant was finally allowed to sell alcohol after first applying for a license in October 2024.
Losing money, luxury dining without drinks
A large paper flyer is taped to the window of suite “a” at 1614 Main St., advertising Top Tier’s karaoke and game nights featuring the Genesis Room, a Colombian restaurant in the busy 1600 block of Main Street. Located in a prime location, the restaurant promises “luxury dining” with lemon grilled lamb chops, asparagus steak and grilled vegetable salmon on the menu. The restaurant hosts special events and posts videos of its sizzling specials on its social media pages.
But business was struggling. Diners at the restaurant cannot order cocktails or wine with their meals. Customers often walk in and then walk right back out after being told they can’t order drinks. This dynamic is also confirmed on social media.
“My friends tried to go last week. No liquor license so they left,” wrote one commenter on a recent Facebook post seeking reviews of the restaurant. The restaurant’s high-profile attorney, Bakari Sellers, said the company has lost “hundreds of thousands” of dollars because it was unable to sell alcohol for more than a year.
Sellers said he viewed the case as an example of the Department of Revenue stifling small businesses, arguing the Department expected Top Tier to go out of business as it fought the denial of its license to sell liquor.
Patrick McCabe, an attorney for the South Carolina Department of Revenue, said the state agency was unable to approve the Main Street restaurant’s liquor license for a number of reasons. McCabe said the restaurant’s previous owner was cited for selling alcohol without a license, and the department is unsure whether that person is still involved in the business.
The restaurant’s original owner, Norman Harvin, applied for a license to sell alcohol in Top Tier in October 2024, but his application raised a series of questions from state agencies, including whether he filed taxes in 2022 and 2023. Harvin’s name was later removed from the business, its LLC, bank accounts and other legally binding documents and replaced by another name: Claudette Outen, the mother of one of Harvin’s restaurant managers. Otten told the court she did not know Harvin and that she agreed to take over the business to help her daughter and grandson.
McCabe said that raised red flags for the tax office, including why Harvin would hand over his business without compensation and why Otten would accept business from a man she said she didn’t know.
“One of the major red flags is when a person just takes over a business and can’t explain how they acquired it… We’ve seen in the past that people would transfer the business to a third party to avoid revocation or still maintain control,” McCabe told The State in an interview after Thursday’s hearing.
Sellers said Harvin has completely severed ties with the restaurant, but the Department of Revenue remains skeptical.
“The fact is, he is no longer part of the company,” Sellers said, adding that Harvin’s name has been removed from the company’s LLC, bank accounts and lease agreements and that Harvin has not received any funds from the company.
“We were even willing to sign a stipulation with the department that would ban him from the premises,” Sellers said.
Past events at the restaurant
In addition to questioning who actually owns Top Tier, the Department of Revenue also questioned how well the restaurant’s new owners knew Outen, as well as the relevance of past incidents at the restaurant that resulted in Harvin being ticketed for illegally selling alcohol, as well as one of the restaurant managers being ticketed for selling alcohol to someone under 21.
In order to sell alcohol in South Carolina, regulators must determine that a person has “good moral character.” McCabe of the Department of Revenue argued that Otten was being dishonest in saying she didn’t know Harvin and called into question her character and her ability to hold a liquor license in the state.
Also in question is a 2024 incident in which South Carolina law enforcement raided Top Tier and charged Harvin and another person with illegally selling alcohol.
Shortly after Harvin first applied for a top-shelf liquor license in October 2024, South Carolina law enforcement conducted an undercover operation against the restaurant. McCabe said the operation was random and had nothing to do with Harvin’s permit application, but the incident affected the business’ subsequent attempts to obtain a permit.
In November 2024, SLED conducted an undercover operation at Top Tier, sending an 18-year-old man with a fake ID into the company. A top employee provided services to an undercover agent without asking to see her ID. The SLED agent then realized the business also did not have a license to sell alcohol.
A manager of the business was cited for selling alcohol to a person under 21 years of age, while Harvin was cited for selling alcohol without a license. SLED also seized dozens of bottles of liquor, wine and beer from the restaurant.
Harvin withdrew its liquor license application in September 2025 after being issued a citation and the application failed. A month later, the business filed a new application listing Otten as the sole owner.
Otten is the mother of one of the top team managers, Christina Sykes. Otten’s name replaces Harvin’s on many official business documents, including the company’s application for a new liquor license.
Sellers said Harvin was removed from all business documents when it became apparent he was becoming an obstacle to the company obtaining the license it needed to sell alcohol. In court Thursday, Otten said she paid nothing for the restaurant, which is now in her name.
Thaler and McCabe argued the case last week before South Carolina Administrative Court Judge Crystal Ruckard. Neither could say how long it might take for Ruckard to issue a ruling, but Sellers said he hoped his client would be able to serve alcohol “within a year.”
Judge Ruckard will now have to sort out all aspects of the case to weigh the Department of Revenue’s objections against the restaurant’s claims. There is currently no timetable for when a decision will be released, leaving top companies in a bind. In the meantime, the restaurant continues to operate without a liquor license, limiting its menu offerings and ability to make money from those sales.
