OAKWOOD — La Parrilla will get to continue operating with an alcohol license but not before getting some admonition from Oakwood City Council on Monday night.

“It appears there was a blatant violation here,” Mayor Lamar Scroggs said. “On this side of the fence looking in, it was like ‘Let’s do this thing and get forgiveness later.’”

City Council voted to allow the business to keep its license but to file away the incident as a reminder if the restaurant ever has another brush with city alcohol laws.

The council rendered the decision after a hearing allowing La Parrilla, which is in the Robson Crossing Shopping Center off Atlanta and Winder highways, to explain why its license shouldn’t be revoked.

The matter stemmed from a Cinco de Mayo celebration in which alcohol was served on the sidewalk outside the restaurant.

Hipolito M. Goico, an Atlanta lawyer representing La Parrilla, said the incident occurred because of a misunderstanding.

“It appears now, as we continue to investigate this matter, that we did not obtain what we were required to obtain to be able to do what was done,” he said.

He said an employee “responsible for making sure we had the proper documentation” has been suspended without pay for 15 days.

“We recommend that within your discretion, you issue a public warning,” Goico said to council members.

“We would like for the city council to take our prior history, or lack thereof, and the many years we’ve been in operation ... into consideration.”

Councilman Sam Evans said he saw the incident “as a big misunderstanding” and he didn’t believe a business “like this would put their license ... at risk just to hold a one-day affair.”

Councilman Gary Anderson agreed.

“It appears to me that this was, at worst, a mistake ... on the part of an employee who didn’t totally understand what we were saying or how we were saying it,” he said.

Councilman Montie Robinson expressed some concerns beyond the lack of a permit.

He said that Police Chief Randall Moon had reported that two off-duty Hall County sheriff’s deputies working the event “were under the assumption that all the paperwork was legal.”

“They were deceived also, right?”

“We have never questioned the openness and fairness of the city in undertaking the investigation and/or the proceedings,” Goico said. “... Nobody tried to deceive when it goes to the question of intent. A mistake was made.”

After the hearing, Goico said he believed the city council’s “response was fair and well-thought.”

John Sommers of Buffalo’s Southwest Café, which has a restaurant at Robson Crossing, spoke to City Council on the matter during public comment time in the business meeting that followed the La Parrilla hearing.

“We would like you ... to review the local ordinance, which is a bit outdated, and interpret it to the written word,” he said. “...There should not be a gray area.”