According to Rafferty, the Grille was not so exceptional five years ago. He says Harvard Square once featured an abundance of watering holes for undergraduates, including the Boathouse, the Spaghetti Club, the College Grille, and the Bow and Arrow Pub.

But with each of these establishments now closed, the Grille has stood out more and more.

"The Grille is one of the last college bars in town," Rafferty says. "People say, 'How could this be occurring in the middle of Harvard Square in a prominent location?' It's a bad place to be as a licensee to have the license commission view you as making them look bad."

In addition, he speculates, the attention now placed on the Grille is self-perpetuating.

"The problem for the Grille is that it has now acquired this reputation, deservedly or not, which makes it easy picking for investigators," he says. "If you're an ABCC investigator sent to find underage drinking, you're not going to spend time at Harvest or the Charles Hotel. So there's been a ratcheting-up at both agencies."

Rafferty points to the ABCC investigators' request that the commission not permit McCarthy to pay a fine as a sign that authorities are attempting to move in for the kill.

But until the most recent ABCC hearing, the camera-shy McCarthy had difficulty adopting to the government's spotlighting his business.

Both Scali and Rafferty, used to disagreeing on just about everything regarding the Grille, concur that McCarthy's record of serving minors was not a calculated business decision.