Hours-of-service bylaw rankles restaurateur

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      Vancouver council’s vote to allow longer liquor hours in licensed restaurants is giving at least one restaurateur a nasty hangover.

      On October 8, council approved staff recommendations on extended hours, but James Iranzad is now saying that the city did not consult the restaurant industry on two measures that he claims will impair business.

      One involves rolling back the hours of some establishments that operate later than 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, which are the new closing times effective next year. Also, at least half of a restaurant’s sales in any eight-hour period must be in food.

      “All I know is that council has put these aspects of the bylaw in without consultation, and that is the problem,” Iranzad, an operating partner of Corkscrew Entertainment, told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

      Neither provision is contained in a February 3, 2009, staff report on liquor hours. They surfaced in a subsequent staff report dated September 22, 2009, which was approved by council on October 8.

      Referring to the 50-50 rule on food and alcohol sales, Iranzad wrote in an October 21 e-mail to friends in the industry: “The days of ordering a quality bottle of wine would be over, by law.”

      Raymond Louie, the councillor who introduced the motion regarding the new service hours, explained what this rule entails.

      “It’s not specific to an individual food bill,” Louie told the Straight by phone. “It’s over how much liquor you sell over an eight-hour period and how much food you sell over an eight-hour period. This is remembering that the title of this licence is a food-primary licence. And so if you want to sell liquor as your primary product, then you have the option available to you to apply for a liquor-primary licence.”

      The Vision Vancouver councillor also defended setting uniform closing hours at 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends. “It’s about equity for everyone across the city,” Louie said. “We’re enshrining this into a bylaw and giving everybody that same opportunity.”

      According to numbers given out by staff in the two reports, only 20 percent of the city’s 1,061 licensed restaurants have alcohol closing hours of either 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. Forty percent close either at 12:30 a.m or 12 midnight and earlier, while another 40 percent can serve alcohol until 1 a.m.

      Louie added that staff is expected to come back to council with the draft of the new liquor bylaw before the end of the year.

      Quoting Iranzad’s e-mail, Straight.com reported on October 24 that some restaurateurs are planning a legal challenge to the bylaw. Iranzad’s company owns three restaurants: Hell’s Kitchen, the Flying Tiger, and Abigail’s Party.

      In his e-mail, he blamed the liquor-primary industry for the two unwanted provisions in the Vancouver staff recommendations, claiming that its “very well organized and funded” lobby exerted “a great deal of pressure” on the city. However, in conversation with the Straight on October 27, Iranzad distanced himself from the e-mail, saying the document was “manipulated”, without providing details.

      John Teti is president of BarWatch, which represents bars and nightclubs in the city. He bristled at suggestions that his industry was responsible for the changes that have elicited complaints from some restaurant owners. “That’s absolutely ludicrous!” Teti told the Straight by phone. “It’s got nothing to do with ordering expensive wines. If a guy wants to order a $12 hamburger and a $200 bottle of wine, we don’t care. That’s not what this was about.”

      Teti said that the issue is about restaurants that are operating just like bars. He claimed that about 100 licensed restaurants are engaged in practices like charging cover fees and not admitting minors.

      Teti noted that the restaurant industry has been clamouring for extended hours, and if it is unhappy with the results, it has only itself to blame.

      Liquor-law enforcement in B.C.

      > Number of inspections from October 1, 2008, to March 31, 2009: 4,354

      > Total contraventions found: 344

      > Cases involving intoxication: 28

      > Cases involving permitting consumption after hours: 15

      > Cases involving operating as a bar when licensed as a restaurant: 27

      > Cases involving serving alcohol to minors: 20

      > Cases involving overcrowding: 15

      > Number of Vancouver establishments cited for violations: 9

      > Number of Vancouver licensed restaurants found operating as bars: 4

      Source: B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch report released on May 13

      Comments

      2 Comments

      h1n1

      Oct 30, 2009 at 10:46pm

      When will this city get rid it's archaic liquor laws? This is truly an embarrassing time for Vancouver. I love this city but my god we have to get off our arrogant high horse and start acting like 'the first class' we claim to be. Let's toss this 50/50 by-law in the garbage were it belongs. I want to be able to go out and enjoy a couple of appies at my fav fine dining restaurant and order a 200 dollar bottle of vino and not have to worry about the server coming up to me to tell me that they've already met their bloody quota.
      I don't think it's 'ludicrous' that the bar/club owners are getting blamed for this, Vancouver's food scene standards have finally become acceptable for a 'first class city' whereas our club scene....please this city doesn't have one single decent club. It's no surprise that more people are dining out then being caught dead at one the crappy clubs. Club owners in this city need to shape up rather then getting all nit picky about how the restaurants are doing.

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      luls

      Nov 12, 2009 at 11:57pm

      'have the option to apply for a liquor primary license' what??? that can take up to 2-8yrs and will never get passed. the city doesn't hand out liquor primaries anymore you have to buy an existing one for a million dollars and move it somewhere.

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