An Old Town Portland bar is suing one of its bartenders for $115,000, claiming that’s the cash it will lose when its taps run dry all because the bartender broke Oregon Liquor Control Commission rules.

The suit claims Gunnar Hokan Jorstad was drunk while on the job last Jan. 13 while serving customers at the Barrel Room, 105 N.W. Third Ave.

That caused the liquor commission to hit the Barrel Room with one stiff penalty: The agency will yank the bar’s liquor license for three weeks, starting Jan. 20, according to the suit.

The Barrel Room wants Jorstad to pay up: roughly $5,500 per day for 21 days.

Jorstad couldn’t be reached for comment.

The suit provides few details about what happened last year, stating only that Jorstad admitted to Portland police that he drank on the job and that he was relieved of his work duties that day.

Commission spokesman Matthew Van Sickle elaborated, saying a police officer noticed Jorstad in a highly intoxicated state outside the bar about 10 p.m. Jan. 13. Five hours later, police were called to remove Jorstad from the bar as he neared the end of a shift that started at 8 p.m., Van Sickle said.

The liquor commission not only penalized Jorstad’s employer, but Jorstad, too: The agency suspended his service permit for 18 days after he decided not to contest the drinking allegation and penalty, according to Van Sickle.

Although Jorstad’s LinkedIn page says he has worked at the Barrel Room for nearly two years, since February 2017 to the present, he now appears to be employed at a different Portland bar. He described the position at the Barrel Room as “extremely high volume bartending with sales exceeding 10,000 a night.”

Douglas Raab, a Portland attorney representing the business, didn’t return a call for comment Wednesday.

The Barrel Room has run into trouble with the liquor commission in the past. In fall 2011, less than two years after it opened, the bar was ordered by the commission to come up with a plan to correct a “history of serious and persistent problems” after Portland’s police chief complained of multiple police calls to the bar in a months-long span.

The bar also made headlines last year after a woman claimed that Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA team the Dallas Mavericks, groped her years earlier in 2011 while at the bar. Those allegations only publicly surfaced last February. Cuban denied that it happened, and he wasn't charged.

The Barrel Room has operated without attracting the attention of the OLCC in recent years -- until Jorstad drank a year ago.

Van Sickle said all drinking establishments and servers are told it’s against the rules to imbibe on the job and penalties are severe.

“It just shows how seriously we take this,” Van Sickle said.

For a business’ first violation within a two-year period, commission guidelines call for a 30-day liquor license suspension. Van Sickle said the commission negotiated with the Barrel Room and settled on a 21-day suspension.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

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