Concluding that an atmosphere conducive to fighting led to a brawl between patrons this summer, the Cambridge License Commission yesterday slapped The Spaghetti Club with a three-day suspension.

The commission delayed the suspension of the club's alcohol and entertainment licenses for a probationary period of three months, during which the club may avert the penalty if the period passes without incident.

The commission also cleared a manager and bartender of allegations that they held down a pair of patrons while the patrons attempted to defend themselves in the bar fight.

The employees "acted properly in breaking up the fight afterwards, but did not act properly in having control as the fight started," said Richard V. Scali, the commission's executive officer, speaking for the three-member body.

Scott E. Griffen, the bar's general manager, said he was pleased by the commission's ruling, calling it "fair."

"The place has changed a lot. It had a bad stigma, but we're working toward changing that. It's a gradual process," he said, nothing that "we've been doing a great job for a year."

Some local residents said they were bothered by what they saw as a lenient sanction.

"It's nothing more than a slap on the wrist," said Gladys "Pebble" Gifford, president of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, who at a hearing Tuesday urged the commission to revoke the bar's licenses.

"I bet [the proprietors] are having a good laugh," she said. "If this were the first offense, it'd be different, but it's not."

The Spaghetti Club has a history of appearing before the commission. Its alcohol and entertainment licenses were suspended for a total of 67 days in 1994 for patron fights, underage drinking and "failing to remain food-oriented."

But Scali said a history of offenses only goes so far.

Responding to concerns that the incident merited a harsher ruling, Scali said "the facts of the case [would] have to match with that severe punishment."

The panel's investigation of the incident at first hinged on whether bar manager Griffen and bartender Andre Haynes had escalated an Aug. 30 fight between patrons by holding them down, as the patrons alleged.

After the two customers retracted their statements at the Tuesday hearing, that allegation lost its weight.

But the sanction imposed reflects the club's acts of negligence, Scali said.