LINCOLN — The Town Council voted unanimously last night to set a Sept. 23 hearing to determine why it shouldn’t take some action against the La Cabana nightclub, including, possibly, revoking its liquor license all together, the council president said.

Council President Jeremiah T. O’Grady said outright revocation of the club’s legal license to sell alcoholic beverages was “an option,” but he cautioned “whether or not we go there is something that will have to be decided.”

O’Grady sought the 6 p.m. hearing because he said that the police on July 26, while responding to a noise complaint at the Reservoir Avenue club, counted between 192 and 195 people in the upstairs part of the club, nearly twice the 100-person limit the council had set in a previous license hearing.

O’Grady also said the town had been advised by the state Health Department that the club’s license to serve food had been allowed to lapse. That was important because La Cabana’s liquor license was granted on the condition that the alcoholic beverages were being served with food. If it can’t serve food, O’Grady said, it may not legally be able to serve alcohol either.

The council has taken action against La Cabana’s liquor license in the past, most recently in May. That show-cause hearing was called after it was found that the club’s sprinkler system did not meet state building and fire codes and that the club owed the Saylesville Fire Department $17,400 for firefighters that were stationed at the club for safety reasons. O’Grady said he was also troubled by an assault that happened outside the club.

As result of that hearing, the club agreed to pay off the debt to the Fire Department in $200 weekly payments, consented to a 30-day license suspension, would keep its downstairs closed and limit the number of people in the upstairs to 100 until the sprinkler system was upgraded.

The July 26 report of 192-plus people inside, with 15 to 20 more waiting in line outside, particularly bothered O’Grady, he said, because the owner Alido Baldera was present at the time, allowing the excess patrons in and “flying in the face of the restrictions we voted at our May meeting.”

Liquor-license suspensions are not unusual for La Cabana. It has been a frequent target of the council members’ complaints about what they have felt was the club’s insufficient efforts to control rowdy behavior by club customers.

Besides the 30-day suspension in May, the council voted in September 2007 to suspend La Cabana’s license for a day after an incident at the club. It also ordered Baldera to pay about $8,840 in detail fees it owed the Police Department. In May 2006, the council yanked the liquor license for a week as punishment for three incidents of unruly behavior.

jhill@projo.com