Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Jackpot Saloon & Music Hall, located in downtown Lawrence, is planning to fence in an outdoor patio area, which will allow smokers and other patrons more room to drink alcoholic beverages outside of the establishment.
After years of gathering information and submitting designs, local bar owners are now gaining approval to construct sidewalk patios to accommodate their smoking patrons.
At the June 9 City Commission meeting, the Jackpot Music Hall received final approval for outdoor patio construction, joining the Eighth Street Tap Room, 801 New Hampshire St., and The Sandbar, 117 E. Eighth St., as the next bar to add an outdoor hospitality area in the past few months.
Originally, the sidewalk dining ordinance in place since 1993 restricted businesses that didn’t make at least 70 percent of their revenue from food and non-alcoholic beverages from constructing outdoor patios.
The ordinance was amended in August 2008 to include local businesses that didn’t meet the 70 percent requirement, allowing them to construct outdoor hospitality areas.
Nick Carroll, owner of the Jackpot, 943 Massachusetts St., credits the smoking ban in November 2004 for motivating city commissioners to make changes to the sidewalk dining ordinance.
Some bars in Lawrence took a hit immediately after the smoking ban.
“I can tell you that when the smoking ban came, we took a 40 percent dive that took us three years to gain back,” Jeremy Sidener, manager of The Eighth Street Tap Room, said.
Carroll has yet to set a start date for construction of the Jackpot patio, but said he estimated it would be completed sometime before students returned for the fall semester in August. Carroll said that the patio would make it more comfortable to smoke and drink and that patrons would use reusable cups. The patio will be built on the front side of the building and include benches, chairs and standing and sit-down tables.
“I think what happens is two rooms are better than one,” Carroll said. “You can walk outside and the patio gives you a change of scenery.”
When Megan Do walks past the Jackpot Music Hall with her friends, she said, she always sees the same familiar scene — a crowd of smokers clogging up the sidewalk. Do, Wichita junior, said a front patio outside the Jackpot would definitely help in “corralling” the smokers into one area instead of having them scattered around the sidewalk.
In March, City Hall approved The Eighth Street Tap Room’s application for a sidewalk patio, the first sidewalk patio area to be approved for a bar.
Sidener said business has been better since the creation of the patio in late April.
Jeremy Neverve, owner of the Red Lyon tavern, said that while he does have plans to add an outdoor patio when the economy picks up, he doesn't think the Jackpot’s upcoming patio addition will affect his business negatively because “it’s just a patio.”
City Commissioner Mike Dever said that when dealing with a historic area such as Lawrence, businesses must be creative with the space available.
Dever said he was happy to work closely with the local businesses that applied for outdoor smoking areas to cater to their smoking crowd.
“I think we are trying to work with business owners to create a unique environment downtown,” Dever said.
Dever said he saw the new sidewalk patios as a way to even the playing field with competing businesses that have built-in outdoor smoking areas.
"I think fair is in the mind’s eye,” Dever said. “I think it’s more about creating equity among these places.”
Kimberly Simonetti works as a server at La Parrilla and is a casual smoker who frequents the Tap Room.
Simonetti said she thought the new outdoor patio was something for smokers and non-smokers alike because everybody wanted a place to hang out outside.
Marthe Turlington, Garden City senior, said that when she goes out with friends, she thinks first about someplace they can go outside and drink, especially during the summer.
“I think it’s a benefit to the students and the business owners,” Turlington said. “Hopefully, more patios will spring up around town.”
— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger
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