Reasons for a new alcohol licensing system

Buceph

A bit of background on where I'm coming from with this... I am a drinker, but I've cut down a substantial amount in the past year or so. I have a few pints, bottles of beer or glass of wine because I like the taste, not because of the buzz. I still like the odd night of going out with friends for a "big" night, usually when we're on holiday. I'm also a tabletop gamer, board games, wargames, roleplaying games, that kind of thing. The people I play with all drink, but there's plenty of nights where we go with a couple of bottles of coke between us rather than booze. It makes no difference to us, it's purely a taste preference. The main thing is that we have an activity where drinking isn't the primary social outlet, just something ancilliary to it, like coke and popcorn at the cinema.

One of the guys I game with has a long term ambition (that I share with him) to open a gaming shop, with a gaming café attached to it. The idea is that there's the regular shop selling games, but there's also a café attached that rents out board games, and lets people use the tables for their gaming (anything from Dungeons and Dragons to chess.) The guy with plans for this is Spainish, and is a big fan of Pinchos (the Basque equivalent of Tapas.) So along with normal café things, we'd like to serve small servings of food, munchies for sharing and for nibbling on when you're engrossed in your game. I think such an idea could be a success, a good café with that type of food could do really well, and the gaming activity is just a boon for that type of person.

The problem I see, business wise, is that a lot of people do like to drink. But gaming isn't a purely drinking activity, the drinking is ancialliary to that. With the gaming taking the primary role, I'd like to think that people would be just as happy having some Patatas Alioli with a coffee as with a beer. The thing is that some people simply would not go this café unless they could have the beer. And I think it's a perfectly valid option to have, just as much as having a coffee is. The thing is that our current licensing laws aren't set up this way. Where the liqour license laws are concerned a drinking establishment is just that, purely for drinking. There's no allowances made for somewhere that the sale of alcohol would be a minor thing. It wouldn't be the dominant element to the business, but it's just as vital to the business' success as any other element.

I think McDowell was a hateful little man, and the café culture idea of his was the only thing he ever got right. However he was ridiculed and dismissed by the Vintners Association (who spun the media amazingly well against his proposal) and his coalition mates. The nub of it for me is that if someone wants to go out for a night, the pub is the default option, other desires be damned. It's the people who want to drink pints who make the decision of where to go, and they are primarily catered for. If someone else in that group wants to not drink, they're seen as secondary by the very nature of the publican industry. They're there to be tolerated, so the pubs can get their hands on the drinkers. And this isn't the fault of the pubs, it's in their very nature to behave in this way. And this is a socially dangerous thing, catering firstly for the consumption of booze and no-one else. We have seen how this has caused a lot of problems for a substantial, if minority portion of people. And the problem with all this is the binary nature of the pub/nightlife business, there's drinkers (their customers) and there's non-drinkers (to be tolerated.) On the other side there's non-alcohol events making the exact same mistake as the pubs, there's the non-drinkers (their customers) and there's the drinkers (currently ignored.) And that's why I think there should be a new liquor license category made available, at a much lower cost. One that caters for a business where alcohol is not the primary model for the business, but where it is an important element.

I've been looking at this for a few weeks, reading about licensing laws in different countries and in different counties in America. I'm planning on eventually writing to a few TDs about it. The problem is I'm mainly coming to the idea from my idea of the (gaming) café, and that's where I'd like to hear what you have to say. If you could break your friends, family or co-workers out from a pub to a café (or any other business) that still caters for their desire to have a few beers, but doesn't make it the focus of the business, what would that business be? I think if it can be shown to most people that there can be life outside of a pub, that still allows them to enjoy their few scoops but also allows people to indulge other interests the idea would go a lot further than McDowell's café culture (and all the bogus problems the Vintners Association threw at the idea.)

Sunnyisland

Is there not already many private clubs that carter for this,and may I add that a lot of these clubs the private is there just for legality.

Tomatohead

It does take a lot of encouragement to drag Irish people out of the pub. It's not just the laws that need changing but our attitude and behaviour; we boast about what great drinkers we are, but that is nonsense, we abuse alcohol like no other.

Having said that the games café sounds like a great idea, I'd just hope the customers behave. Pinchos are tasty too.

What if it was for under 18s then you wouldn't have the headache of catering for drinkers. Maybe leave them in their stinking pubs.

Best of luck with it.