OPINION & EDITORIAL
Quinton’s: Pushing 50
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by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Monday, February 25, 2008
In yet another example of Madison’s stark intolerance of alcohol consumption in the downtown area, the Alcohol License Review Committee will soon consider whether to revoke the liquor license for Quinton’s Bar and Deli, 319 W. Gorham St., at the urging of Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc.
If you weren’t familiar with Madison’s tyrannical tendency to try to stomp out alcohol consumption and taverns in the downtown area, you might assume the worst about Quinton’s. After all, losing a liquor license — for any period of time — could very well put an establishment out of business, and who would want that? You’d think they must have a poor habit of attracting violent crowds and putting the public safety at risk. Or, perhaps more innocuously, maybe you’d assume they put little effort toward verifying the age of the drinkers they serve.
But, no. This is Madison, after all — the same city that last year passed a counterproductive, anti-business resolution banning any new bars or liquor stores from setting up shop in the downtown area.
Quinton’s crime? Their liquor license mandates the majority of their business transactions to be of the nonalcoholic variety and, over the past six months, alcoholic beverages amounted to 50.82 percent of their total sales. Oh, the humanity!
To be fair, it is indisputable that Quinton’s violated the letter of the law. But in cases like these, is it not the spirit of the law that is more important? Surely, it would be an absurdity for a person to lose his driver’s license when he drives 56 mph in a 55-mph zone. There is a certain recognizance by traffic police that the line needs to be drawn somewhere, and narrow violations of the boundary need not be prosecuted. Is that same sort of judgment not applicable here?
What’s more, we firmly believe that if city leaders feel a need to address the overconsumption of alcohol downtown, they should cut responsible bar owners some slack just as they punish the owners who breed trouble. If Quinton’s has been particularly problematic to the public quality of life — which doesn’t seem to be the case — then bring that evidence to light and use that as justification to consider the revocation of its liquor license.
In fact, it is clear to us that Quinton’s is striving to obey the terms of its license, while still maximizing profits. That is no vice; it’s what every business is trying to do, and the city should expect no less. We’re sure that, in retrospect, Quinton’s wishes they had pushed those nachos a little harder and fallen on the right side of 50 percent. But, even if they had brought up the food sales a percentage point, it’s hard to see what that would have done to placate any of the city’s underlying drinking concerns.
The obvious solution to this debacle would be for Quinton’s and the ALRC to agree a full liquor license would be most appropriate. Unfortunately, such a sensible resolution would actually be illegal given the harebrained Alcohol Density Plan mentioned above. The sad truth is that, even if Quinton’s somehow emerges from the vulturine claws of Madison’s City Council with a liquor license intact, they’ll essentially be forced to continue pushing the alcohol sales speedometer as close as possible to 50 percent, without ever going over. What a waste.
Anonymous (February 25, 2008 @ 12:32pm):
You're either incredibly uninformed or intentionally misleading. Sad.
Anonymous (February 25, 2008 @ 4:20pm):
Oh no!! Stop trying to outrage people because the bar, as you even admit, didn't meet the requirements of their liquor license. Don't write opinion articles just because your favorite poor, oppressed bar might lose their ability to serve booze forcing you to drink at one of the other 70 bars in the area.
By the way, amazing spedometer analogy. Comparing 1 mph over the speed limit to .82% of sales over their threshold. Did you ever think how much .82% might be for Quintons? If you're looking at the spirit of the law then consider the extent that Quinton's TRIES to make a majority of their profit from food sales.
Anonymous (February 25, 2008 @ 8:03pm):
Quintons should just make anyone wanting to drink there buy food thatll work.....please note sarcasm. Apparently the ALRC wants Quintons to turn away business because they arent selling enough food to go with their drinks
Anonymous (February 26, 2008 @ 11:21pm):
i think the spirit of the law is meant to keep restaurants as restaurants and bars as bars. until i heard about this a little while ago, i didn't even KNOW quinton's was supposedly a restaurant. it's operating as a bar and selling itself as a bar, so i think that does violate the spirit of the law it's supposed to be following.
Anonymous (February 27, 2008 @ 2:39pm):
Why is it Madison's job to decide what should be a bar and what should be a restaurant? Government doesn't dictate the major you study, why does it tell entrepreneurs how to run their businesses?
Anonymous (February 28, 2008 @ 12:05pm):
Quinton's has food?
Anonymous (March 28, 2008 @ 11:21am):
People who think more bars directly correlate to more violence are dumb. People in Madison that want to go out are still going to go out, regardless of the number of bars. Therefor less bars just means more crowded bars. Which in my opinion would lead to more alcohol related crimes, not less!
Joe Rubin (April 7, 2008 @ 1:43pm):
This is the best list of news articles related to this issue. I encourage anybody interested in this issue to check it out. I don't try to act like an objective individual in this matter, but I have linked to the Capital Neighborhoods, Inc. website as well.
Save Quinton's
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9524029500
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