Looking forward to angry drunken arguments...

[ta2ooed1]

After promising patrons for months that it would be done, we were elated to give our smoking customers some other place to light up than right in front of our main entrance (Ohio just passed a ban on smoking inside restaurants this year, FYI).

Hey IC is your bar in Cincy? I'd love to have a bar to go to without trekking to the wilds of KY. And I promise to leave my drink in the bar till the rules changed and not whine about it

[cinema guy]

Licences for selling alcohol can cover anything from opening hours to outside drinking. If the pub/bar/restaurant is in a residential area, it may be that the local residents don't want to hear drunken revelries into the late hours of the night, because patrons can now drink outside.

[Gurndigarn]

A lot of laws that prohibit drinking outside are to prevent people from drinking in public where residents who are choosing not to frequent that particular establishment will not have to see them. The laws may be a little old, but such is life. It's not terribly hard to get the extension of the liquor license, and once it's gotten, it will be much better... but until then, I'm sorry.\

They're also appreciated by us staid old fogies.

Seriusly, though, I'm not too worried about people drinking around a bar or resturaunt with a patio, or any other obvious this-is-the-place-to-drink place, so long as it's not positioned where drunks can harrass non-customers. I'ld just rather not see habitual drunks getting sloshed on the sidewalks.

[icmedia]

Our place is located in a shopping center next to a highway (a bit too far north for you, ta2ooed1-sorry), so I imagine the restriction is based solely on the fact that they will charge us a bit more for our liquor license based on the extra 12 seats we have outside.

In any case, it's rained the last few days here, so luckily we haven't had to deal with anyone wanting to sit outside yet.

And, my gem of a GM nixed the sign idea because she thought it would look unprofessional...this from a woman who would rather make up crappy-looking table tents with a greeting-card design program than let me design them, despite the fact that I have run (as a side business) a graphic design company for the past 9 years, and I designed our menus and most of our ads.

[Becks]

I know this seems like it's a minor thing

It doesn't seem minor to me.

SCs ...well...suck, but add booze to it?

[Shabo]

They're also appreciated by us staid old fogies.

Seriusly, though, I'm not too worried about people drinking around a bar or resturaunt with a patio, or any other obvious this-is-the-place-to-drink place, so long as it's not positioned where drunks can harrass non-customers. I'ld just rather not see habitual drunks getting sloshed on the sidewalks.

Agreed. That's precisely the reason they put those rules in place. If you think about how old towns used to be laid out, and how square people used to be (i.e. liquor=the devil) then yeah, they are pretty good laws since bars and taverns were fairly close to people's homes and shops. People have really relaxed their views on liquor since then, but still. If someone is walking past a restaurant or bar, they expect to see people who have been drinking. They also should have reason to believe that they won't be harassed by said drunks. Hence the laws.

And BeckyS, sometimes alcohol makes non-scs become SCs. I've seen the transformation. Usually though, if they remember what they did, they will apologize for it later, but not always. The only way to win with really drunk SCs is to be either really illogical with them, or to be so verbose that they forget why they are angry with you in the first place. For example,

WS= Waitstaff
SC= Drunk idiot

Illogical Argument
WS: I'm sorry, but you can't bring your drink out there.
SC: Why the not?
WS: Well, because there was a spaceship crash and it makes anyone who brings liquor out there turn into an alien and fly away.
SC: That doesn't make any sense. *wind taken from sails* Whatever dude. You're crazy. *Finishes drink inside or hands to WS to dump*

Verbose Argument
WS: I'm sorry, but you can't bring your drink out there.
SC: Why the not?
WS: Well, you see, due to the nature of this establishment, we need to obtain a liquor license to be able to serve liquor. We have said license, hence the drink in your hand. During the last few months, we have chosen to add outdoor seating. However, we did not discover in this time that we were not allowed to extend our license to include the outdoor patio. Therefore, we are working to get extend the license in this time, and should have obtained the extension in a mere few weeks.
SC: *Completely lost interest* Whatever dude. I'm going to go sit back down.

Just make sure they are ridiculously drunk before you attempt either of these arguments. Otherwise it won't work. Well, maybe the verbose one if the person is really stupid.