BusinessReport.com

As more businesses, restaurants and nightclubs open in downtown Baton Rouge, the city is developing an entertainment district in order to promote the area and attract more visitors.

But one of the items on the wish list for downtown supporters—allowing for people to walk around the district while carrying cups of beer, wine or liquor—faces opposition from a number of fronts.

A number of East Baton Rouge Parish restaurant and bar owners say it would give downtown establishments an unfair advantage in attracting customers.

“Everyone needs to be treated equally,” says Darin Adams, who owns Reggie’s and JL’s Place, two Tigerland bars. “If they’re going to allow for open container downtown, it needs to be allowed everywhere.”

Adams says an open-container law would take business away from his bars, since patrons would be able to hang out and drink without being cited by city Alcoholic Beverage Control agents.

ABC agents set up in the Reggie’s parking lot every Thursday through Saturday and write hundreds of citations for open-container violations, he says. Adams says he’s seen customers cited for an open container while walking on the sidewalk that connects Reggie’s to Fred’s Bar and Grill.

“If the choice is between going to a place where you’re susceptible to being arrested by law enforcement or going to a place where you can hang out with little or no enforcement, where do you think people are going to go?” asks Michael Clegg, a local attorney who represents a coalition of more than 20 bars and restaurants that wants to ensure that any loosening of drinking laws is applied uniformly throughout East Baton Rouge.

An open-container ordinance already would face tough sledding from the Metro Council, which has been leery of loosening drinking restrictions. Last month, the council voted against allowing stores to sell wine and liquor on Sundays, something that’s allowed in the surrounding parishes. Instead, the measure will go before East Baton Rouge Parish voters in October.

Council member Ulysses “Bones” Addison has said an open-container law would “open a Bourbon Street in Baton Rouge.”

Supporters of the open-container law point to events like Live After Five and FestForAll, which attract thousands of people downtown. They say if people can walk around drinking a beer for those events without downtown turning into a taping of Girls Gone Wild, then open containers can work.

Jack Warner, co-owner of Happy’s Irish Pub and The Roux House, has been one of the more outspoken supporters of loosening the open-container law. He says allowing people to walk around while sipping a beer or a cocktail will make downtown more appealing to young professionals. “This is about increasing the standard of living,” Warner says. “We want to make downtown a more enjoyable place to live, work and play.”

Warner brushes off suggestions that allowing for drinking out of open containers will cause college students to rush downtown. After all, he says there aren’t many LSU students going to Live After Five, where a beer booth is set up in the middle of North Boulevard. “Tigerland is going to do fine,” he says. “They’re going to keep

doing fine. This is for the 25-year-olds to 35-year-olds.”

But Adams and Clegg say open containers will cause more people to head downtown. Adams says the policy could hurt restaurants that fall under the parish’s no-smoking ordinance. Smokers at downtown restaurants would be allowed to duck out for a cigarette on the sidewalk, while keeping their drinks with them.

“The people pushing for this are the people who couldn’t make it in the bar industry,” he says. “Now they’re asking for a rule change. They didn’t give us a rule change when we opened up Tigerland."

Warner, who owns Walk-Ons Bistreaux & Bar near Tigerland, says it’s not about downtown businesses wanting an unfair advantage, any more than it was an unfair advantage when people started building bars near the concentration of college apartments south of LSU. “Downtown is wide open,” he says. “Anyone can go down here and buy, rent or renovate a place and open a bar."

Clegg says other parts of the city would be ideal locations for entertainment districts that allow for open-air drinking, like Towne Center at Cedar Lodge, the Esplanade Mall (at Corporate Boulevard and College Drive) and Tigerland. All of those areas have a concentration of restaurants, bars and entertainment.

But Warner says what makes downtown different is that it’s a small area that can be shut off, whereas Bob Pettit Boulevard, which leads into Tigerland, is a four-lane street with heavy traffic. “There’s not much vehicle traffic downtown,” he says.

The Downtown Arts and Entertainment District Committee said it might bring up discussion of an open container ordinance at a later date. The issue is on the mind of many downtown supporters, who voiced the need for a law change at a recent Forum 35 meeting.

Clegg says his coalition is willing to fight any change to the open-container ordinance that isn’t applied uniformly. “I’m all for revitalizing downtown, but not at the detriment of my clients,” he says. “They’re all happy with the status quo.”