Downtown Iowa City restaurants want alcohol stings focused on bars

Downtown Iowa City restaurant owners want police to focus their alcohol stings on problem bars.

As it stands now, the alcohol compliance checks occur across the spectrum of establishments with liquor licenses. But some restaurant owners say it's not fair that they get checked as frequently as bars that see significant numbers of underage drinkers.

“There is no method to the madness, so that is the frustration to restaurants,” said George Etre, owner of Takanami and Formosa.

The issue was discussed at a Wednesday meeting of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety. The group is made up of representatives from the University of Iowa, city of Iowa City, students and downtown businesses.

In compliance checks, police officers get underage people to go into businesses to try to buy alcohol.

Kelly Bender, the UI's coordinator for campus-community harm reduction initiatives, said compliance checks are important for creating a standard for following the law and research has found best practice is to do at least two checks a year per establishment.

But Etre and Leah Cohen, owner of Bo-James restaurant and bar, said their businesses get checked just as often as the handful of downtown bars known to have problems with underage drinking.

Bo-James failed two stings within two years and lost its liquor license for a month last year. But Bo-James was a 21-and-older bar long before the city banned underage people from bars after 10 p.m. three years ago, and Cohen said the violations were more from a lack of experience.

“My staff is not used to minor IDs,” Cohen said.

The restaurant owners at the meeting said they were not opposed to compliance checks, but they think it only makes sense to go after the places that are known to have underage drinkers.

Iowa City and University of Iowa police would have to be involved in any decision to change the frequency with which establishments undergo stings.

Bender, who said she hoped to have a town hall-style meeting on compliance checks focusing on restaurants, said she's supportive of going after problem bars.

“I fully believe if three places change what they're doing, everything will change in the community,” she said.

The group also brainstormed ideas on providing more alcohol-free entertainment options for students. It's a tricky problem, they said, because many students often are not interested in events that don't allow drinking. That discussion will continue and public-private partnerships, both for making venues available and financial support, may be explored.

Not discussed Wednesday was

the petition that is currently circulating attempting to overturn the 21-only law.