Bar owners comfortable with Cape alcohol ordinance

Changes of any kind often are met with resistance, but business owners in Cape Girardeau seem to have few issues with the city's recently changed alcohol ordinance.

Some owners even have said they are happy to see new rules on the books that force more accountability on the city's bars.

Updates to Cape Girardeau's alcohol ordinance took effect Wednesday, coinciding with the renewal of liquor licenses.

It was nearly a year ago when the Cape Girardeau City Council first began discussing these possible updates, which received final approval from the council in January.

Since that time, the Cape Girardeau Police Department has been working to make sure each affected business owner was aware of the updates and in compliance by July 1.

"We definitely want everyone to be aware of the changes that are going to take place. We want everyone in compliance," said Sgt. Adam Glueck, a spokesman for the city's police department.

As of Wednesday, anyone younger than 21 is prohibited from entering establishments where "intoxicating liquor" is served or sold to be consumed on the premises, unless the minor is accompanied by his or her parent or legal guardian.

Certain establishments are exempt from this rule, including restaurants earning more than half their sales from food, bowling alleys and golf courses.

Another change requires any person directly involved in the sale of alcohol -- which could include managers, bartenders, servers, cashiers or others -- complete an alcohol education program approved by the police department every two years.

A certificate of the employee's successful completion of such program and any pertinent records also must be available for inspection on demand by the city, police officers or liquor-control agents.

Glueck said there were some questions and confusion about the training at first, but police have spread the word about training opportunities available through the department and online.

The online program, State of Missouri Alcohol Responsibility Training -- also known as SMART -- is free and can be taken at any time.

The police department offers quarterly training sessions, also free, but since they are available less often, Glueck said the department is "really pushing the online training."

The department's last server training session was offered Monday. About 100 people signed up.

The third change to the city's alcohol ordinance prohibits contests that involve drinking or awarding alcoholic drinks, selling an unlimited number of drinks during a set period of time for a fixed price and selling alcoholic drinks below cost.

To make sure every relevant business was aware of the ordinance updates, the city mailed a letter to each business with a liquor license. Police officers also put in some face-to-face time to help bring everyone up to speed.

"Everyone should have received a letter, and we [police officers] actually hand-delivered a few letters ourselves and talked to business owners ourselves," Glueck said. "We've had some questions, but no push back from businesses so far."

Jeff Mungle, co-owner of bar/arcade Coin-Op Cantina, 46 N. Main St., said his business received its letter in early June, which was plenty of time to get ready by July. A police officer also came by to discuss the ordinance.

Mungle said the owners heard some talk of the changes before they opened in April, so they weren't caught off guard when the letter came.

"With the bar that we have, we weren't planning on doing any of that stuff anyway, the 'all-you-can-drink,'" he said. "We do mostly craft beers down there so ... something like that, it wouldn't have benefited anybody anyway."

Catherine Thompson said her business, The Library, 10 S. Spanish St., doesn't offer unlimited drink specials, either.

She said she was happy an ordinance is in place banning those specials, which are largely a gimmick to draw in crowds.

With those types of specials, "you're not making good money, so that's what you're doing to bring them in," she said, "and then what you're doing is you're putting 21-year-olds -- because those are the ones that go there -- you're putting them behind the wheel after you're doing that to them.

"I think it's really bad practice to do that, and how can you monitor how much someone's had to drink when it's all you can drink? So I was really happy to see that, for the safety of our patrons."

Thompson also said her staff quickly completed the server training and earned their certificates. While some businesses may have had questions about the training, she and Mungle said they were on board with it quickly.

"I've taken courses in food safety for other stuff, so it didn't surprise me that they were going to require something like that for serving alcohol," Mungle said.

Glueck said the police department invites anyone with remaining questions to reach out.

Information about the ordinance is available on the department's Facebook page and the city's blog, and people also are urged to call or email with questions.

Thompson said she's happy with the changes, which she said are based on common sense, and applauds the work done by the city to make bars and taverns more accountable.

"Give them a 10 for that," she said. "I think they did really good."

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

10 S. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

46 N. Main St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.