Posted on 05/25/2004 9:11:35 AM PDT by NorCoGOP
The bartender at the Union Colony Brewery, the woman who opened its doors for the first time on Nov. 14, 1994, said she knows just what she'll do when the restaurant/bar closes on Wednesday.
"I'm going to cry a lot. I know that," Stacy Myrant said Monday, as other staff members were preparing a batch of the restaurant's trademark Cajun boil for an employee dinner.
"It's going to be like the last episode of 'Cheers,' only worse."
Owner Larry Oyler said Greeley's smoking ban, enacted in December, was the crushing blow to the business that has slumped through a down economy since 2001.
Brother Jeff Oyler, who manages The New Plantation in Evans, offered some evidence to bolster the claim: Just as Union Colony Brewery's business sagged by about 25 percent after the ban, new patrons at the Evans bar contributed to a small but measurable business boost, he said.
"It's got to be the ban," he said. "It pretty much wiped us out down there."
On Monday at 1412 8th Ave. in Greeley, as a pair of eight-ball players clicked through a game on one of the bar's pool tables, a few regulars cried in their beers over the closure.
Ken Heaton, who is as familiar to regulars at the brewery as Norm and Cliff were to TV viewers, said the end of the road for the establishment is a blow to the community's soul.
"Bars like this have always been places where people from all over the community came to talk about the issues of the day," Heaton said. "It's a hub. If you eliminate the neighborhood bar, you lose a lot more than just that."
Larry Oyler launched the business -- Greeley's one and only brew pub -- on the cold, crisp brews that came out of the back room. Homestead honey, Pawnee Buttes Kolsch ale, Rattlesnake Kate's Vienna lager and Old 8444 Alt are staples. Other varieties made seasonal appearances.
If only every night at Union Colony could have been like the past five, following the low-key announcement to regulars that closing day was at hand, the bar might have hung on to start its second decade.
"We've had absolutely great business for the past week," Myrant said. "The regulars are coming every day now."
While the smoking ban was "the nail in Union Colony's coffin," as Oyler put it, other factors worked to cut the legs out from under the business.
The sudden appearance of chain restaurants and bars, called by one brewery regular "the Wal-Marts of the food and drink business," surely eroded the brewery's customer base. Myrant said the economic plunge that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, didn't help, either.
Still, tips from Myrant's customers -- "members of my family," she calls them -- were sufficient for her to raise two children while she spent most of the last decade as a single mom.
"I'm not sure what I'll do now," she said, looking forward in a melancholy way to a second interview Tuesday for another job. "Maybe it's time for me to get out of the restaurant and bar business."
It is for their own good, bump.
No one ever pays attention to us, do they????
Why the younger generation is attracted to places like "Old Chicago" or "Applebee's" is beyond me.
There is a generational transition that society as a whole needs that can only be found in the local bar.
Why can't the business owner decide whether or not to allow smoking?
What a silly notion. How can free enterprise function without government meddling? You must be an American or something ; )
It's places like Applebees that are pushing these bans.......they have the corporate backing to overcome any downturn in business. Something the smaller places, such as theone in this article do noto have. Applebee's and others of that genre just wait it out until all the mom and pop places are shuttered and they get all that business.
Government intervention to stifle competition.
Worse than the last episode of Cheers?
Only Seinfeld has managed to pull that off.
Nope.
Not even a lot of people on this forum.
At least three.
Hello Ladies. Thanks for the ping. Seems to me we're witnessing the slow death of America as we know it. These smoking bans stink of fascism. It’s a slippery slope that this country is already sliding on. Seatbelt laws, helmet laws, smoking laws. All for our own good. Welcome to the Nanny state.
My local watering hole is a place called Shenanigan’s. It’s a local Irish pub. Great place. Everyone knows everyone. It’s like a family of sorts. If that place ever closes due to a smoking ban I will organize a protest like the town of Leesburg has never seen. Of course, I’ll need a week to cry in my beer (while chain smoking cigarettes of course).
Last I checked, I was an adult. My parents raised me as best they could. I do not and will not accept the gov’t telling me what I do and don’t need. Ever. I’ve known me for 39 years now and I know better than anyone what I do and don’t need.
I get so tried of people telling me what’s good for me, especially at work. I smile, explain that these lungs are my lungs and I’ll do with them as I please. Then you get the argument about how my smoking is costing them money in health care costs. My rebuttal is that I pay my own (skyrocketing) health insurance. Their next argument is about second hand smoke. My rebuttal is that the science used to determine that is junk science, that both my parents smoked and I still don’t have any smoking related health issues. By this time, these smoking nazis no longer want to talk to me and are no longer smiling, which makes me smile that much more.
Correct. "Old Chicago" or "Applebee's" with their phony mass-produced faux "atmosphere" suck out loud.
Phony bonhomie is no replacement for the real generational meeting that takes place in the great neighborhood bars and social clubs that the dweebs are trying to eradicate.
More of the homogenization of America.
I like that!
But I have never seen the likes of being able to buy a legal commodity, then being treated like a criminal for using it. You??
Great rant.
>> But I have never seen the likes of being able to buy a legal commodity, then being treated like a criminal for using it. You?? <<
Only at work do I have to put up with the smoking nazis. Diversity my fanny!
Being a creature of habit, I shop at the same supermarket and hang out at the same pub (Shenanigan’s). At the market, I know the folks who work there by name and visa versa. They know better than to get on me about my smoking. They’ll have to listen to me rant for a good 10 minutes about what’s wrong with smoking bans. Besides, most of them think the same way I do. Maybe that’s why I shop there.
Are you being harassed when buying cigarettes? I hope not. If you are I’ll just have to come up there at set these folks straight. After one of my 10 minute rants, they will never bother you again. LOL!!!
>> Great rant. <<
Thanks Gabz. It's even better (or worst depending on which side your on) in person.
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