Ever since the opening of Luther’s Blues in September of 2000, the University of Wisconsin and the Policy Alternatives Community and Education, or PACE project, have shown interest in the restrictions placed on the liquor licenses of taverns and restaurants in the campus area.
When Luther’s Blues opened, two pages of restrictions were placed on its alcohol license, including the banning of drink specials at the establishment. These conditions were then applied to new businesses such as Hawk’s, Crave and Dottie Dumpling’s Dowry.
At the April 21 meeting of the Alcohol License Review Committee, Steve Murphy, the owner of Luther’s Blues, appealed to the committee regarding the drink specials restriction. Murphy won his case, and now Luther’s Blues will be allowed to offer drink specials to its patrons.
City Council president Mike Verveer said he believes the relief of this condition is important.
“The irony is that Luther’s Blues was the very first establishment in the campus area that had this restriction placed on its liquor license at the behest of the UW,” he said.
Verveer believes since the restriction placed on the first establishment has fallen, others will appeal their case to the ALRC for the removal of the drink specials condition.
The conditions placed on these establishments were originally seen as voluntary. Luther’s Blues, Hawk’s and Dottie Dumpling’s Dowry agreed to these conditions in front of the ALRC, but Verveer believes they did so out of fear their liquor licenses would not be granted if they failed to comply.
“Now the gates have opened. The ALRC has no right to keep the prohibition on any license,” Verveer said.
Although there is a chance for relief from the drink specials ban, Eric Flemming, the owner of Crave, does not want to reprieve this condition from his liquor license, for he feels doing so would reverse Crave’s reputation as a classy bar.
According to Flemming, bars with drink specials are targeting a different market than Crave.
“It really comes down to the crowd we want,” Flemming said. “We don’t want to have the binge-drinking type of crowd; we want the sophisticated student.”
Verveer related the drink specials ban mandated by the ALRC to the recent impending lawsuit against downtown area bars that agreed to ban drink specials.
A main difference is establishments under the ALRC’s restrictions have the drink specials ban enforced every day of the week, while downtown area bars involved with the lawsuit only follow this restriction on the weekend.
According to Verveer, since the bar owners formed these restrictions on their own, possibly illegally, they are being sued for a voluntary action outside of the city laws.
“There would be no lawsuit if the city had forced them to ban drink specials,” he said.
