The fight had spilled out into the parking lot next to Jay’s Bar and Grill in the Vista. The yelling was turning physical just as a Columbia Police Department cruiser rounded the corner and turned on its blue lights on the night of Aug. 28, 2023. The crowd scattered, some running back towards the bar.

In the confusion, one man was punched and fell to the ground. His jaw was broken, his face cut and it appeared like he’d lost some teeth, according to a police incident report. His friends were “highly intoxicated,” according to the police. At least one of the attackers, both described as two men in cowboy hats, according to the victim’s friends, was an employees at Jay’s.

The brawl was one of 22 incidents that the Columbia Police Department logged at the downtown Columbia bar between November 2022 and April 2024. Between January 2023 and June of this year, 162 calls to 911 have been made to 902 Gervais St., the address for Jay’s Bar and Grill.

While other businesses, including the Longhorn Steakhouse and the Columbia visitor welcome center, share that address, the vast majority of those calls were for incidents at Jay’s, said Michael Crowley, an inspector with the Columbia Police Department.

Records of complaints and calls, reviewed by The State, reveal a pattern of disorder told through repeated reports of underage drinking, fights, and alleged assaults by staff and patrons.

Among the incidents: officers described finding USC students so drunk they couldn’t stand, covered in cuts and “continuously vomiting” outside the bar; an underaged woman drinking at the bar was knocked unconscious when she tried to intervene in a fight between a couple; another victim was dragged behind a dumpster and beaten to the ground when he told bouncers they were making his female friends uncomfortable.

Law enforcement officials have noticed.

“Jay’s Bar & Grill has failed to operate and sell alcohol in a responsible manner,” wrote Crowley in a 2023 letter officially protesting the renewal of the bar’s liquor license.

The bar has even been investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for permitting underage drinking, according to documents. But attempts to investigate incidents have allegedly met with interference and hostility from the staff and the bar’s owner, Jay Kalin.

Jay's Bar and Grill Location

An entrepreneur whose first store was a popular smoke and vape shop near the University of South Carolina’s Greek Village, Kalin’s business model is providing a good time at a good price.

But his history of criminal charges for disorderly conduct, drug possession and manufacturing, and an allegation in an incident report of a violent sexual assault of an underage patron, raises questions about the environment at Kalin’s bar.

When reached by email, Kalin told The State he believed criticism against his bar was unfair. Kalin said his staff cooperated with law enforcement authorities and took steps to prevent underage drinking and fights at the bar. “We are constantly learning and changing to improve our patron’s experience.” Kalin wrote.

Crowley acknowledged that since a sit-down in April with Kalin and his attorneys from the prestigious Strom Law Firm, they had seen some improvements at Jay’s. The bar has brought in new scanners and new managers, according to his lawyers.

But it may not have come soon enough.

On Aug. 14, 2024, the South Carolina Department of Revenue, which issues and regulates liquor licenses, issued a notice conditionally denying the renewal of Jay’s liquor license. In its letter, the department cited the Columbia Police Department’s protest letter, a failure to submit proof of a liquor liability insurance policy as well as a finding that the bar “lacks a reputation for peace and good order,” in declining to renew the license. The bar has an opportunity to appeal the denial to an administrative court before its license expires on Nov. 12.

If the license isn’t renewed, the bar might be forced to close.

Following the brawl on Aug. 28, 2023, cops spoke with a man who identified himself as Jay, the owner, according to the incident report. Jay refused to let officers inside of the bar and one of his managers refused to let them view surveillance footage, according to the incident report. Officers wrote that they saw Jay repeatedly attempting to lead someone, believed to be involved in the fight, out the back door of the bar before abruptly turning around when he saw officers.

“Throughout the incident,” one officer wrote in a report, “Mr. ‘Jay’ was adamant about officers not going into his establishment and repeated that his employees did not need to talk with Officers. Mr. ’Jay’ stated on numerous occasions that he did not like what Officers were doing and that he knew the law more than the Officers.”

“We have heard some complaints”

In January, the Vista was shaken by an unusual crime. A gong had vanished from its place inside of a yellow and blue art installation that sat outside of Jay’s Bar and Grill.

Above a sign that encouraged visitors to bang the gong to celebrate success, there was now only an empty hole. After a police report was filed, the heavy metal disk was found, badly damaged, in the yard of a home behind Columbia’s VA hospital.

Its disappearance aroused fury among the Vista’s established boosters.

“We’re very upset about it,” Columbia resident and video artist Lee Ann Kornegay, who helped raise money to bring the sculpture to the Vista, told TV station WIS. “It makes me mad and sad that this beautiful piece of public art has been vandalized.”

The culprits who cut the sturdy metal cables holding the gong in place were never found, but rumors circulated that videos on social media showed young revelers roughly banging the gong outside of Jay’s. The bar was never directly implicated in the gong’s disappearance, but on Jan. 31, Kalin cut a $5,000 check to the Congaree Vista Guild, the district’s business association, according to WIS.

“Vista Guild came up to me and said something about it [and] I thought it was the right thing to do,” Kalin told WIS at the time. “They came to me with a problem, I just wanted to solve it.”

But the sense that Jay’s was a magnet for chaos have lingered.

As the Vista has evolved into a nightlife destination, many feared that the warehouse turned arts district would become what Five Points used to be before the famously debauched late night district was tamed through lawsuits and bar closures. While fears of rampant disorder in the Vista have largely gone unfounded, Jay’s stands out, according to law enforcement and policymakers who spoke with The State.

Concerns about the bar have also been brought to the Congaree Vista Guild, the district’s business association, of which Jay’s is not a member.

“We have heard some complaints,” said Abby Anderson, executive director of the Vista Guild. The Columbia Police Department is in contact with the guild about incidents they have responded to at Jay’s, Anderson said. And the guild’s “Clean and Safe Team,” which is responsible for keeping the neighborhood neat and helping visitors, had been directly in contact with Kalin regarding trash, Anderson said. But, “some things have been fixed and have gotten a little bit better,” Anderson said.

Kalin refutes the characterization of his business. “We feel our competitors are unhappy with our success and have come to you to smear our restaurant’s reputation,” Kalin wrote in an email to The State.

But law enforcement records tell a different story. Of the 23 incident reports filled out by the Columbia Police Department since Jay’s opened, nine detailed assaults. Among the others are fraud, theft, public drunkenness, criminal sexual conduct and a missing person’s report.

“This is atypical for the other establishments in the Vista,” Crowley, the Columbia police inspector, told The State.

Since the bar opened in late January 2023, Crowley said that officers were constantly responding to 911 calls, ranging from civil disturbances, fights, assaults, underage drinking and missing persons.

“That’s a lot of manpower that we’re spending on a Friday or a Thursday night,” Crowley said.

Jay Kalin

Among the most serious incidents brought to light in incident reports are allegations against Kalin himself.

An incident report from Sept. 17, 2023, alleges that Kalin sexually assaulted a woman in his car in the parking lot outside of Jay’s Bar and Grill. The incident report alleged that Kalin invited a guest, whose name is redacted but who he knew to be underage, to Jay’s and allegedly offered her free drinks if she agreed to follow him to the rear of the restaurant.

Kalin then “proceeded to put his hand around (redacted’s) neck and pushed (redacted) into the backseat” of his black Porsche SUV where he allegedly covered her mouth to prevent her from yelling out, performed oral sex on her and spat on her before allegedly raping her, according to the incident report.

The victim was taken to Prisma Baptist Hospital by a friend who had come with her to the bar along with a family friend who owned a nearby business.

Kalin has not been charged with a crime in the Sept. 17, 2023, incident. In a statement, he wrote “the accusations are patently false, and I deny the allegations in the strong (strongest) possible terms. No charges were ever brought, and this matter is closed.”

A spokesperson for the Columbia Police Department said the investigation “remains active,” but Kalin’s attorney and South Carolina state representative Seth Rose told The State “this was thoroughly investigated by law enforcement a long time ago and Mr. Kalin was not charged.”

Rose told The State that they had “provided evidence to law enforcement to show his (Kalin’s) innocence. Bottom line is Mr. Kalin did not sexually assault anyone.”

But Kalin has faced criminal charges before. Over the past decade, Kalin, whose Facebook page describes him as being from Maryland and Myrtle Beach, has pleaded guilty on at least five occasions to infractions ranging from violating city ordinances to felonies.

In 2014, Kalin was convicted of a littering charge brought by the Conway Police Department. At a bench trial, he was found not guilty of a separate charge of being a minor in possession of alcohol.

The following April, Kalin was charged with entering a premises following a warning and was found guilty of violating a Conway city ordinance at a bench trial. In October he was charged with disorderly conduct and was once again found guilty at a bench trial of violating a Conway city ordinance.

In September 2017, police at the University of South Carolina charged Kalin with felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana and psilocybin, according to court records. While prosecutors declined to prosecute the psilocybin charge, Kalin ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and he was given a five year “youthful offender” sentence, suspended to two years of probation.

In January 2019, Kalin was charged with four counts of manufacturing and possession of a controlled substance in Lexington County. He pleaded guilty to all four counts and received a five-year suspended sentence and two years probation.

That same year, Kalin, who wrote on social media that he’d studied computer science at Horry-Georgetown Technical College and at Midlands Technical College, opened Jay’s Vape and Wellness Center on Gadsden Street on the far reaches of the Vista. Amidst a sea of parking lots and across the street from the University of South Carolina’s Greek Village, the store, which advertises vapes, legal weed, tobacco and smoking accessories, thrived.

Looking to expand, Kalin told the Post and Courier in 2022 that he decided to open a bar, Jay’s, instead of another vape shop to avoid cannibalizing his already successful business.

That November, before the bar opened, Kalin was seen struggling to walk, stumbling in the street in front of his vape store, according to an incident report. When officers attempted to detain him, Kalin allegedly walked away. Once cuffed and inside of a patrol car, he spat at officers, according to an incident report.

The solicitor’s office declined to prosecute the case.

The Cheapest Place in the Vista

The space Jay’s took over, on the far end of the Vista near Senate Street, had sat vacant for almost two years after the previous tenant, World of Beer, closed during the pandemic.

The promise of the bar was simple: Jay’s would “probably be the cheapest place in the Vista,” Kalin told the Post and Courier of Charleston in May 2022. The dream, Kalin told reporters, was to create a space that welcomed everyone.

But trouble began almost immediately. “Approximately one day” after the bar opened, the Columbia Police Department received its first complaint about underage drinking at Jay’s, according to the department’s protest letter.

In the first five months of 2023, the police received seven complaints of underage drinking at Jay’s.

The tolerance of underage drinking and irresponsibly serving alcohol has fueled much of the chaos, according to law enforcement.

Kalin disagrees, saying the bar takes steps to deter underage drinking. The bar employs the same forensic ID scanners that are in place in bars in Five Points, and the bar’s policy is to scan every patron’s ID when they enter.

But based on reports to police, the technology hasn’t been enough to deter underage drinking.

Last September, a Columbia Police Department incident report described how officers responded to reports of “two individuals being let into the location through the back door for the purposes of underage drinking.” But the officers were barred by the staff from entering the bar.

An investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division into underage drinking at the bar was beset by staff attempting to “obstruct and hinder SLED Agents,” according to the letter from the Columbia police protesting Jay’s liquor license.

While SLED declined to comment for this article, the agency filed three administrative violations between February and May 2023 against the bar for serving underage customers.

Problems with authority?

In July 2023, Columbia officers wrote in an incident report that they were responding to a dispute in front of Jay’s. When the officer pointed out to a manager that the bar looked overcrowded, the manager denied it before announcing the bar was closed, pushing customers out and telling the cops that the bar would be empty before the fire marshal arrived.

“This event once again shows that Jay’s Bar does not assist the Police when an incident occurs inside the bar,” the report said.

A spokesperson for the Columbia-Richland Fire Department confirmed that it had taken administrative action against Jay’s twice in the past year for being over capacity. On one occasion the case was dismissed, on the other other the bar was fined.

In his statement to The State, Kalin said that his team was “eager” to assist law enforcement and it was the restaurant’s policy “to cooperate with all law enforcement personnel and provide video and information upon request.”

But six police incident reports specifically note Jay’s staff didn’t give law enforcement officers access to cameras, whether by claiming the cameras weren’t working, weren’t hooked up or asking for a search warrant, despite the victims of the crimes being customers of the bar.

In February 2023, a woman accused of assaulting a Jay’s patron and bar staff told her victim, “get away from my car before I start shooting.” Officers investigating the scene were told that the bar’s cameras were not working.

That October, a woman alleged that she was assaulted by four other people while trying to break up a fight. Jay’s staff told police they could not provide footage of the fight “due to them not having the VCR part of their system,” according to the incident report.

This February, an underage customer was knocked unconscious after reportedly telling a woman fighting with a man, “you don’t deserve to be treated like that.” The victim came to bleeding heavily with a cut to her head that required five stitches, according to the incident report.

Columbia police department officers noted in their report that the bar was “refusing to give any video” and told them “officers aren’t allowed inside Jays.”