As I’m sure everyone in Elizabethton by this point knows, the City Council voted last week to approve pub bars as a new use in the city. There has been a lot of misinformation and miscommunication about what the regulations say and require of pub bars, so I want to take some time today to clarify these points.
The pub bar regulations that were passed last week were specifically tailored to regulate the type of establishment that City Council has desired to allow, while at the same time attempting to discourage the types of establishments people commonly think of when they hear “pub” or “bar.” First, pub bars (along with breweries and microbreweries) are required to provide food. They can be in the form of pre-prepared snacks or platters for purchase or freely available, but they must provide some food. The difference between this and a restaurant is that the primary purpose of the establishment is not to provide food.
There has also been some discussion regarding breweries and microbreweries confusing these issues. Breweries and microbreweries have been legal in the city for almost a year now and the regulations allow for them to have a tap room on-site. When crafting these regulations, we simply looked for similar uses of pub bars (in this case brewery and microbrewery tap rooms) and set a similar standard for them.
Next, in our definition of a pub bar, we require that 80 percent of the alcoholic beverages served must be from a microbrewery (a brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels annually). This does two things. The first is, it encourages pub bar owners to purchase from small businesses in our region (all of the microbreweries in our region produce under 15,000 barrels) where they can easily self-distribute to a local pub bar and, secondly, because craft beer is much more costly than high production domestic beer, it raises the sale price of the beer making the economics of drinking to the point of inebriation unappealing. This same logic has been used at local festivals that have started serving beer with no issues.
Fourthly is the issue of beer on sidewalks. While this was included in the regulations passed last week, there are strict requirements to serve on the sidewalks and in no case would someone walking down the street with a beer in-hand be allowed. The regulations allow for beer service so long as the business owner obtains a sidewalk encroachment permit and provides a barrier between where sidewalk pedestrians are and where beer service is allowed. Patrons of the pub bar will not be allowed to simply sit along the curb, walk down the street, or crowd the sidewalk with the beer in-hand.
Lastly, the City Council will be passing next month an ordinance amendment that will require pub bars to not provide service after 11 p.m. Currently, other establishments serving alcohol can serve later than 11 p.m. This will help ensure that pub bars do not become establishments open all hours of the night or become endless drinking establishments. We encourage our downtown businesses to stay open after 5 p.m., but staying open after 11:30 p.m. or midnight is probably not something we want in our downtown. This will help ensure these businesses stay open late enough to provide a venue for those who desire it, but not stay all night.
City Council and city staff have put a lot of research, review, and have had many discussions with officials from Johnson City, Erwin, and even a few small towns in southwest Virginia regarding the impacts of tap rooms, breweries, and pub bars on their communities. There may be some who are upset and some who are happy, but in either case please do not think that City Council or city staff took the crafting and passage of these regulations lightly. We have worked together to craft regulations that we believe will achieve responsible establishments for our citizens who wish to partake of these types of beverages. Let’s talk about it!
(Jon Hartman is Director of Planning & Economic Development for the City of Elizabethton. He can be contacted at 423-542-1503 or by email at: JHartman@CityofElizabethton.org)