For the second time in six months, The Stein was cited by Waltham Police Thursday for serving alcohol to underage patrons, police said. The campus restaurant will be subject to a three-to-six day suspension of its liquor license when it appears before the Waltham License Commission, likely at its next meeting May 23.The Stein had been cited for the same violation after a compliance check in November, a sting operation that the police repeated all over the city that night. The restaurant could have received a one-to-three-day suspension of its liquor license, but instead received a warning from the commission at a Jan. 24 hearing.

Police hit the streets again Thursday night, conducting compliance checks at 85 restaurants, Lt. Steve Champion said. The compliance checks involve sending underage students from various local colleges into liquor-serving establishments with their real Massachusetts driver's licenses.

Thursday's compliance check came at an inopportune time for The Stein, as seniors nearing graduation flocked to the restaurant for the annual senior pub crawl, which was organized by the Student Union and began at The Stein.

But Reuven Sunshine '06, an Aramark employee who acknowledged serving the underage students and quit his job at the restaurant that night, said The Stein was not prepared for the influx of customers that came with the pub crawl. This unpreparedness, and the mayhem that followed, seems to have led directly to The Stein's infraction and to varying accounts of the particulars of the compliance check.

Draft beer priced at $2, which had been advertised all week, were unavailable almost immediately, Sunshine said, because restaurant manager Brian Wilson had failed to set up a keg before leaving. Wilson could not be reached for comment.

"In true Stein fashion, we were out of beer on pub crawl night," Sunshine said.

This led to what Sunshine described as a mob scene at the bar. With draft beer unavailable and the bar lacking its own cash box, Loretta Baccari-the manager on duty at the time who had also been on duty when The Stein failed the first compliance check-left the restaurant to retrieve a cash box from downstairs.

But after she was gone for about 20 minutes and with seniors growing restless, Sunshine said he felt compelled to go behind the bar and start serving Red Hook Nut Brown Ale-which is $1.50 more expensive than the advertised draft beer-despite instructions from Baccari prohibiting him from doing so.

It remains unclear why Baccari was out of the restaurant for so long.

"My heart was in the right place, but my head clearly wasn't," Sunshine said. "I went behind the bar to prevent pandemonium from breaking out. The pub crawl was supposed to start at The Stein, but no one was getting served. It was an embarrassment as an employee."

Sunshine said he thought everyone's ID had already been verified, because Student Union officials were checking IDs of pub crawl participants at the door, and also distributing blue shirts that the seniors wore throughout the night to qualify them for special offers at area bars.

But two other customers had sidled up to the bar.

"They weren't wearing blue shirts, but they looked like they were part of the festivities," Sunshine said.

Sunshine said he served both of the customers, and minutes later, police entered the restaurant to inform him that the customers were underage. The Stein was one of 15 restaurants cited for violations that night, Champion said, compared to only four that were cited during the last round of compliance checks in November.

"It was very disappointing," Champion said. "There's going to be a lot more compliance checks. [Waltham will] seeing a lot more of us, so consider this a heads-up."

Union and administrative officials appear to have been misled about the nature of the compliance check.

Both Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes, and Brian Paternostro '07, the Union's director of communications, said Baccari told them the customers had been wearing the blue shirts given to pub crawl participants. But Champion said the customers did not have the blue shirts, and Sunshine was explicit in his assertion that they were not wearing the shirts in an interview Saturday.

Confronted with the discrepancy between accounts, Sunshine acknowledged Monday that he had told Baccari, who declined to comment for this article, that the customers had the blue shirts draped over their shoulders, in an effort to protect himself and to protect Baccari from disciplinary action.

"It was not her fault," Sunshine insisted about the failed compliance check. "She wasn't told by . Brian Wilson . that the pub crawl was happening that night."

Union officials said The Stein had been notified weeks in advance about the pub crawl, and Edgar Ndjatou '06, the Union's former director of social affairs, said he spoke with Wilson about the pub crawl a few days before the event.

Michael Newmark, the director of Dining Services, declined to comment because he is still conducting his own investigation into what happened.

Mark Collins, the head of university services and the University's liaison to Aramark, also declined to comment.