The owner of a popular Vancouver establishment, the Narrow Lounge, has been forced to close his business for a week in April due to what he’s describing as outdated rules in liquor inspection enforcement.
David Duprey says it all comes down to what appears to have been a misunderstanding. He says when an undercover provincial liquor inspectors asked to order food just after 1 a.m., a relatively new part-time bartender told them the kitchen had wrapped up for the night, even though it hadn’t.
“And they gave me a $7,000 fine or seven days closed. Legally we have to close the kitchen at 1:30 a.m., so we were about 20 minutes before we should have been closed with that misunderstanding,” said Duprey, who owns the Narrow Group — which comprises five restaurants and art spaces.
The Narrow Lounge, like many other similar spaces, has a food-primary licence. Duprey says liquor inspectors have been “stepping up enforcement” on such establishments over the last several months.
He says a couple of months before the infraction, an inspector came into the business and said “they didn’t like the way we were operating, that it was too dark, and that we were focused too much on fun.”
“I said, ‘What do we need to change?’ And they said, ‘We can’t tell you what you need to change, but you need to change it, and we’ll be back.’ And then they came back, undercover, and came in at 12:30 at night with two undercover agents and they stayed an hour — which is a heck of a long time as we’re only a 45-seat restaurant. I don’t know what they did for an hour, but I hope they had a good time,” Duprey recalled.
“And then, at 1:10 in the morning, they asked one of my bartenders if they could order food and the bartender mistakenly told them that the kitchen was closed. The person was new, they didn’t know the kitchen was open and ready to serve food. So that was all they needed to know. [The inspectors] left after that and I got a letter in my email the next day.”
While he admits there are some bad actors out there, Duprey stresses he’s not among them.
“We’re not serving minors in this case, we’re not overcapacity, we’re not having everybody in the bar drunk and falling down,” he said. “Come on.”
The impact of the temporary closure is “huge” on his business, Duprey notes, claiming $7,000 is about what he’d make in profit over about three months.
“It’s massive. We’re taking the closure, which is seven days, because that’s going to be cheaper for me, but that does put my whole staff out of work. There’s a whole group of people that won’t have that income for a week. We’re keeping our kitchen open, so we’re still going to do the take-out, but yeah, it’s a massive blow to us, for sure,” he added.
“It is something left over from a time gone by. Don’t forget, in Vancouver, up until very recently, restaurants couldn’t serve alcohol without food … And that was all the way up until the early 2000s. This is absolutely a throwback to that.”
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Duprey says he’s had the Narrow Lounge for 16 years and that it’s been a battle from the start when it comes to licencing and regulations.
He tells CityNews he feels rules are outdated and arbitrarily applied, and he’s not alone. Ian Tostenson, the president and CEO of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, says he agrees licencing rules need to change — and he’s working to make that happen.
“We’re sort of saying there should be one liquor licence, as they do in Ontario. You just have a liquor licence. But here, it’s food-primary, liquor-primary,” Tostenson explained.
In addition to “operating outside of licence purpose,” the enforcement action against the Narrow Lounge says the restaurant was too dimly lit and claims the business was selling too high a proportion of liquor versus food.
Tostenson points out there’s no public health risk associated with infractions like the one served to the Narrow.
“Now we have the liquor licence inspector telling you the ambiance that you want to create in your premise? I’m actually so mad about this, I’m going to actually call the general manager of liquor licencing,” he said.
“Is it really an infraction? It is really against the public interest? Really? Someone’s going to be that particular about 15 minutes? I think it’s crazy.”
There have been other instances of infractions against local restaurants that have raised questions in recent months, including fines issued to one business after patrons were seen dancing while another was shut down after plates were smashed.
Operating a business can come with its challenges on a good day, but Duprey notes the pandemic “changed everything.”
He says the focus should be on help businesses thrive instead of struggle.
“It’s not helping, it’s just bad business,” he said.
“There should be one liquor licence, there shouldn’t be two. We’re still a ways away from doing that but … this harkens back to no-fun city and all this stuff that was going on 15 years ago, which was awful. We don’t want to go back to that. We want to be a progressive, active, fun city, where people can drink responsibly and have a good time and not have the owners worry about being shut down for minor infractions that should be a conversation.”
While he understands liquor inspectors are provincially regulated, Duprey says he feels the city has a role to play. He explains he’s spoken to some councillors about the challenges he’s faced, adding they’re “as upset as everyone else is.”
“It’s their job to advocate for us and to go to liquor control, go to the province and tell them to lighten up.”
Meanwhile, the Narrow is taking the closure as an opportunity to turn “lemons into lemonade.”
The business says it will take the week of April 26 to May 2 to bring in “upgrades” to its food, beverages, and space.