At the Nov. 21 State College Borough Council meeting, members voted unanimously to give Fuji and Jade Garden, 418 Westerly Parkway, a liquor license.

On the surface, it may appear as though council wanted to give the restaurant the license without hesitation, but it's unclear if this assumption is accurate.

It did pass the request with several restrictions on the license, however.

The restrictions prohibit the development of a bar atmosphere in Fuji and Jade Garden, and include limiting the sale of drinks to 22 oz. or less, not selling alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday or after 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and limiting the number of seats in the bar area to 10.

Council acted on the assumption that, if rejected, Jiang would appeal the decision and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board could act as a superior power, and grant the liquor license without any restrictions. However, the state could have rejected the liquor license altogether, which would have rendered the debate about the license moot.

But what if the state had not granted the liquor license at all?

It is understandable that a rising concern among many State College residents is the increasing number of liquor licenses. But does one small restaurant far removed from campus really contribute to the drinking scene in State College?

Council members were well aware that they were granting a liquor license to the co-owner of Fuji and Jade Garden Jing Mei Jiang, who also owns Hunan Wok, 452 E. College Ave, which has had repeated health code citations. Hunan Wok was closed for four days earlier this month because of such violations. There appeared to be reluctance by council to give Fuji and Jade Garden the license, in part because of these health violations.

It would have been wrong to punish Fuji and Jade Garden because of the violations by Hunan Wok, and consequently it's encouraging that council did not allow their reservations to prevent them from approving the liquor license. This shows council puts effort into making rational decisions.

However, the number of restrictions placed upon the restaurant seem to indicate that council did not want to grant this license, but operated on the assumption that the PLCB would approve a request for a liquor license without such restrictions. Hopefully, this will not set a trend for council in which they compromise in situations solely to avoid the state's influence.

Ultimately, council's decision to allow Fuji and Jade Garden to obtain a liquor license was correct, considering that the establishment has no previous health code violations and the restaurant does not appear to be focused on alcohol sales.