'Sober bar' must sell Booze to allow smokers

Edmonton Journal ^ | Friday, August 15, 2003 | Jason Markusoff

[Ronin]

EDMONTON - A "sober bar" that caters to recovering alcoholics was told Thursday to get a liquor licence and start serving alcohol if it wants to let customers smoke.

A city bylaw inspector's warning creates a painful Catch-22 for the owners of north-side Keep it Simple club. If they stay dry and ban smoking, they say they'll lose 90 per cent of their business.

If they start selling liquor, they'll be tempting many patrons to return to addiction.

"The city is forcing us to promote alcohol as the only way we can keep smoking," co-owner Tom Charbonneau said. "Other restaurants and bars have that option, but we don't."

Charbonneau and Lawrence Lathe opened Keep It Simple two years ago to give recovering alcoholics, gambling or drug addicts a bar-like atmosphere without the booze they have to shun. They also hold meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and other 12-step programs in a back room.

Most former addicts smoke; it gives them at least one vice, Charbonneau said.

A bylaw inspector visited the club Thursday, for the first time since the July 1 start of Edmonton's anti-smoking bylaw, which only allows smoking in bars with a minors-prohibited liquor licence.

She let Charbonneau and fellow co-owner Lawrence Lathe off with a warning, but they'd need to get a licence to continue to allow smoking.

However, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission refused to issue them a licence Thursday, because they weren't planning to actually sell liquor.

"They weren't looking for a liquor licence, they were looking for a smoking licence," said Alberta Gaming spokeswoman Marilyn Carlyle-Helms.

Charbonneau said he plans to ask the city if there is a way to get around the bylaw, without having to bring in alcohol.

"If they say I have to serve a 12-pack, I will buy a 12-pack of beer, sell it for $5 a can, call all the media, stand in front of our sober club and pour it all out on the ground, just to show them how ridiculous it is," Charbonneau said.

A city official said the rules are clear on the bylaw, and the owners knew about the restrictions well in advance.

"This is a decision that has affected a number of other establishments in the city," said Mark Garrett, manager of the city's development compliance branch.

Charbonneau had erroneously thought the nightclub would be exempt because it was a members-only facility. His adjacent Keep It Simple coffee shop went non-smoking on July 1 and has suffered a 30-per-cent drop in business, he said.

The bar has 300 members and Charbonneau said it serves juice, pop and food to 200 people a night.

Bar regular Les Labine sat at a table Thursday, smoking with a friend visiting from Ontario. He's avoided drinking for four months, and would come back less often if the club served alcohol.

"It's part of the recovery process to avoid a bar," he said.

And a smoking ban would also turn Labine away. He's not sure where he'd go, he said.

Charbonneau fears many avid smokers would start visiting the very liquor bars where their addictions began. Keep It Simple has been their refuge.

"This has been a mainstay in the recovery community."

jmarkusoff@thejournal.canwest.com

© Copyright 2003 Edmonton Journal

[Mears]

What they want to do is socialize and smoke and,other than home,there aren't many places to do that.

[Still Thinking]

Can't they simply offer only Coors Lite at $500 a can? An initial inventory of one six pack should last them a lifetime at that rate.

[Veil Destroyer]

I've been sober almost 3 years, and I quit smoking over a year ago; yet I find it dispicable the way government is trying to play around with regulations to appease the pigs who sue for secondhand smoke damages.

I still go see rock bands all the time in smoke filled bars where there's alcohol, and should I ever start drinking or smoking again, I would want those places to be there for me. And anyone who quits a habit and then tries to force others to quit, is the epitomy of hypocrisy.

With all the smoking bans in bars going on, I predict we will see an increase in house fires from drunk smokers. Who will get sued then? The Bic Lighter company?