Bar owners in North St. Paul say a proposed city ordinance would force them to shut down on Sundays.
The North St. Paul City Council is expected to vote this evening on whether to deem establishments generating less than 50 percent of their revenue from food sales ineligible for a Sunday liquor license. The proposal also would require seating for at least 30 people separate from a bar area.
"The equipment and things they're saying that we need are nearly impossible to get," said David Jonas, who said his Roddy's Bar on East Seventh Avenue would have to expand his kitchen. "No one is OK with it."
The issue arose when North St. Paul police Chief Tom Lauth discovered many of the local bars weren't in compliance with the current city ordinance. Lauth said the law wasn't being enforced and he didn't know why.
Current city law requires establishments selling liquor on Sundays to have separate seating for at least 100 people while employing at least two full-time cooks, 15 full-time employees and a variety of eating utensils, including china.
"If you're open on Sundays and selling more liquor than food, you're probably more of a bar than a restaurant," said North St. Paul Mayor Mike Kuehn. "If it isn't a restaurant, you can't have a (Sunday) license."
With with the current law mostly ignored, it's appropriate to update it, the mayor said. The 50 percent rule in the new ordinance, he added, is a "common sense" standard for the city's establishments.
The
proposed North St. Paul law is too restrictive and puts the businesses at a disadvantage to competitors in neighboring cities, say bar owners.
Minnesota state law says establishments with a valid liquor license and seating for at least 30 people can get a Sunday license from a city to sell booze with food from 10 a.m. Sundays to 2 a.m. Mondays.
"I don't really understand why (North St. Paul is) trying to be more restrictive than the state is," said Jonas, of Roddy's Bar. "We all understand that we have to serve food. But what they have (proposed) right now is really going to hurt."
If the ordinance passes, he will have to close his bar on Sundays, costing him at least 25 percent of his business given that Vikings games fill up his bar during football season.
An opponent to the measure, city council member Candy Petersen, said even the "most popular" bar in town - Neumann's Bar on East Seventh Avenue - can't come close to generating 50 percent of its revenue from food sales.
"I think it's going to be horrible," Petersen said. "I think that 50 percent is unreasonable. Fifteen percent is reasonable."
Matt Trost, bar and hall manager for American Legion Post 39 on East Seventh Avenue, posted a letter on the group's website last week calling the proposed ordinance "unrealistic, unattainable and utterly ridiculous."
"Not only will this affect the bars, but this proposal will negatively impact the community as well," Trost wrote. He noted there could be no Sunday benefits or fundraisers in their establishments and said the loss of tax revenue for the city and of customers on Sundays will hurt these businesses the rest of the week as well.
"When people start going to other bars on Sundays for cocktails, why would they come back on Tuesdays or Fridays or Saturdays?" he said.
If passed, the new ordinance would go into effect July 1, 2012.
Miles Trump can be reached at 651-228-5583.
IF YOU GO
The North St. Paul City Council meets today at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 2400 Margaret St., North St. Paul.
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