The sign of the former restaurant NoEntiendo hangs in front of boarded up windows after being shut down due to liquor license violations. (Nate Bruzdzinski/CU Independent)

The Mexican restaurant that replaced K’s China at 1325 Broadway has become a key player in the ongoing debate of liquor licenses on the Hill.

NoEntiendo owner, Kyle McNamara, bought the space in April and has since been trying to upgrade the business’s temporary liquor license. A hearing on Nov. 20 will determine whether NoEntiendo’s bid for a permanent liquor license will be granted by Boulder City Council.

McNamara said he invested $70,000-$80,000 in revamping the bar because the city disapproved of the structure of the previous business.

“I changed the name, created a new business with different clientele, made a new menu and tried to do what the city wanted,” he said.

McNamara, sure that the business will close, hosted a going away party on Halloween.

“I think that tonight’s event marks a complete shift in what Boulder is, and especially the Hill, because this business has been here for over 20 years,” he said on Oct. 31. “It just shows that the city council and the liquor board choose to ignore the public outcry and is changing the city to a way they want to see it.”

Last year, neighborhood complaints of loud music, disruptions and underage drinking at K’s China led to the bar’s 15-day emergency suspension, according to Boulder Licensing Authority secretary Mishawn Cook. Additional conditions were tacked on to the restaurant’s liquor license. When K’s violated the additional conditions, the city suspended the license.

Cook said that after that incident, the owners sold their business to Kyle McNamara, K’s bar manager at the time. Because the bar was transferred over, only a temporary license was issued.

During an Aug. 26 hearing, the Denver Liquor Association denied the request to transfer the permanent license to McNamara.

“When a liquor license is not approved, it reverts to the original owner, and that’s where it is now,” Cook said.

In order for the license to be approved, Cook said the business has to show that they’ve operated in full compliance with the state liquor code. But there has been a pattern of fights and other violations.

Last month, Boulder City Council considered a rule to ban alcohol from being served up to 500 feet from an academic campus. Thirty-one people spoke against it and three people spoke in favor during the public hearing.

Council member Ken Wilson said the Boulder City Council recently unanimously voted on an ordinance that will make opening new bars on the Hill more difficult. Bars and restaurants that agree to close by 11 p.m. won’t have extra requirements, but staying open later than 11 p.m. will require going through a full-use review.

“On the Hill we want nice restaurants like Aion,” Wilson said. “With the new ordinance, the bars that are there are fine, but if you wanted to open a new bar, it would be more difficult, and I think that’s a good thing.”

“We don’t need any more late night places,” he added.

Boulder resident Phillip Hengemuhle has been a customer at the K’s China and NoEntiendo location for seven years.

“I think it’s nonsense,” Hengemuhle said. “Kyle made an effort to change how the students and older generation interact. It’s closing because of a group of self-entitled assholes. It has nothing to do with making Boulder better or helping with the drinking problem.”

Hengemuhle said that people attend CU for the college-town experience, and if they take that away, students won’t want to come to Boulder anymore.

“All they’re doing is taking the drinking from somewhere where it’s monitored, and putting it in house parties,” he said.

Senior Spanish major Natalie Roberts, 21, doesn’t agree with City Council’s ordinance to prevent new bars from opening on the Hill.

Roberts said that bars keep students safe, making it easier for them to get home since the majority of the student population lives nearby.

“If the bars are farther away, more people are going to have to drive there,” Roberts said. “That will increase DUIs and risk students’ safety.”

Overall, alcohol enforcement on the Hill has become stronger in recent years.

In March 2012, the Boulder City Council unanimously voted against La’au’s Taco Shop’s request to extend operating hours. This led to La’au’s eventual shutdown.

According to council meeting minutes from April 3, 2012, the council denied La’au’s request because “adding a 17th late night use to an already overburdened community would result in detrimental impacts not consistent with the intent of the land use-code.”

Other bars in Boulder, especially those on the Hill, have experienced the effects of city regulations, but have yet to lose their licenses. The Lazy Dog Sports Bar & Grill’s liquor license was violated in early 2013 and suspended for 20 days.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writers Danielle Meltz at Danielle.meltz@colorado.edu, twitter/justmeltz and Kelsey McWilliams at Kelsey.mcwilliams@colorado.edu, twitter.com/kelsmcw.