Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Business Spotlight: Tapped Out and Tipped Out in Kitsap

Laws more clearly divided taverns and restaurants so they did not directly compete with each other. Patterson remembers the days when a bar served beer and a restaurant made its money on mixed hard liquor drinks. A bar served boiled eggs, pickled eggs, peanuts and pretzels and to be a restaurant you had to offer five different entrees throughout the day.
In the past 10 years, though, bars have applied for more on-site beer, wine and liquor licenses to compete with restaurants — in part for higher profits, in part to attract a different crowd.
But paying the additional taxes for restaurant-classified liquor licenses, as well as permits for pool tables, shuffleboards, and fees to the recording industry for jukebox songs, has pushed small bars to their limits, Patterson said.
"If you’re a franchise, it’s a whole different world," he said. "We decided we couldn’t run it any more because we didn’t have enough young blood to keep it going."
"[Drinking establishments] are shifting," Fischer said. "We’re getting a lot of movement into the county area [and] Silverdale."
The rise of casinos also has a role in changing drinking habits. At the Chips Casino, Ponderay Cafe & Lounge and Bremerton Lanes in Bremerton and the All Star Casino in Silverdale, people can not only drink, but they can play machines, roulette or craps at the same time.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/business/article/0,2403,BSUN_19063_5379176,00.html

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