Cheap courage

Doty said there seemed to be a notable change in the drinking behavior of young people who were coming downtown in the middle 1990s. That’s when other bar owners started offering drinks at a deep discount. The practice evolved into the all-you-can-drink specials that were eventually outlawed by the city.

Doty said he avoided offering those specials until 2001. He only started offering a “cup night” then to remain competitive with other downtown bars. He charged a dollar more per cup than the going rate but extended the special an hour hoping to keep customers from thinking they had to drink a lot in a short period of time to get their money’s worth.

“I didn’t think it was good for me, I didn’t think it was good for the clientele,” he said. “But competition was to the point that I couldn’t get anybody to come in if I didn’t do the same thing everybody else was doing — and do it in our fashion. It got to the point where six nights a week you could go out and find a drink special.”

That was the wrong message to be sending college students, Doty said. Together, the downtown bars were basically telling students they could drop their homework and other activities any night of the week to go get loaded with a small amount of cash.

City’s role

City leaders should take some responsibility for the increase in alcohol-related problems downtown as well, Doty said, because of the “entertainment district” that has evolved around the city-owned civic center.

He sees a situation where bar owners are forced to compete solely on the price of their drinks because people can bounce from bar to bar looking for who has the best drink special. If a bar tries to draw customers in with a band, people won’t pay the cover charge. If the cover charge is waived, they’ll drink somewhere else before coming in to watch the band.

When Doty left the bar business in South Dakota and started doing business downtown in 1971, there were 19 bars and service clubs in all of Mankato, he said. Now there are that many businesses serving liquor in the immediate downtown area, and more have recently acquired liquor licenses.

The long-term plan for the city is to create a downtown entertainment district that isn’t focused on bars alone, said City Manager Pat Hentges. Incentives already have been provided to businesses offering upscale dining options and second-run movies. An arts center is taking shape in a former downtown church, anchored by the main offices for the Twin Rivers Center for the Arts.

Hentges said high-risk drinking by young people is a nationwide problem, so the problem isn’t exclusive to downtown Mankato. But Doty also pointed out that serious alcohol-related problems seem to be more prevalent in college towns with bar districts, such as LaCrosse and Madison, Wis., Ames, Iowa, and St. Cloud.

There are downtown bars that have remained competitive without focusing on drawing large crowds of heavy-drinking, late-night college-age customers, Hentges said. Lunch and dinner menus at Blue Bricks and Pub 500 bring in as many people looking for a meal throughout the day and evening as people looking for drink specials late at night.

The city’s overall plan is to create a strong daytime business atmosphere downtown so businesses serving both food and liquor don’t have to depend on late-night bar activity to stay in business. Retail businesses help, but that goal also can be reached with a variety of service businesses that also bring employees and customers downtown during the day, Hentges said.

“I think there are a few bars that have focused on cheap drinks and the 11 o’clock rush,” Hentges said. “But there are some other people who have put a major investment into their business and are looking for a more diverse crowd. They’re not in drink-special mode and they’ve done well.”

Any bars receiving a new liquor license for a downtown location will be required to garner a minimum of 40 percent of their income from food, according to new liquor license regulations recently adopted by the city. They will be required to have their liquor and food receipts validated annually by a certified public accountant.