Town Shaken, Not Stirred, by Bar’s Idea

Mondays are slow nights at Shooter’s Pub, so the owners decided to try to boost trade by making it a “no-alcohol” night. They would bring in a disc jockey and serve only fruit juices and sodas.

Then the selectmen--who govern this Boston suburb of 5,000 residents--scotched the idea.

By a 2-0 vote, with one member abstaining, the board shot down Shooter’s proposal, purportedly out of fear that a no-alcohol night might draw all sorts of undesirables and disturb the peace.

“First they said it was because of the traffic, then they said it was the noise,” Chris Martin, the bar’s manager, said in recalling the arguments against the proposal. “Then they said that if people aren’t drinking, then they must be doing drugs, and if they’re not doing drugs, then they must be homosexuals.”

Sober Folks Offended

The result has been a controversy of magnum proportions that has drawn nationwide attention and angered nondrinkers.

Shooter’s had been all set to go with the new program late last month. Flyers were sent to Alcoholics Anonymous chapters; a disc jockey was hired for the small dance floor and invitations had been sent out to the press.

But in a prepared statement delivered on the day of the voting earlier this month, Selectman William Enright, the board chairman, said of the Shooter’s proposal: “To couch something like this in terms of a social benevolent activity is ridiculous. This is an attempt to turn a slow night into a money maker.”

Martin said that was precisely the point. “I didn’t portray this as a social project,” he said. “It’s a sound business decision. If I can make money, that’s the American way.”

Selectman John DeMarco, the other opponent of the no-alcohol night, said that what bothered him most about the idea was that, along with the “juice bar,” adding a third night of entertainment to the two weekend nights of entertainment already featured at the bar would aggravate crowds and noise.

Indeed, the bar already has been the subject of some complaints of noise over the past two years, and had its license suspended for three days last February because of a cocaine bust there involving a patron and a former Shooter’s bartender.

“Shooter’s request for an additional night of entertainment was measured against the backdrop of the weekend complaints and the arrests,” DeMarco said in a letter sent to various area newspapers. “I view these violations as entertainment license abuses and, consequently, have no desire to increase the likelihood of such infractions by approving entertainment for a third night.”

Selectman James Geary, who abstained from voting on the Shooter’s plan, had wanted to give it a three-month trial, but was unable to get either of the other two board members to second the motion.

Martin says that Shooter’s still suffers from the image it had when it was a bikers’ hangout--before he and the current owners took over two years ago.

Police records show there have been only 10 noise complaints this year--and most of them, Martin says, were unfounded. “One of the complaints was on a Monday when there were only two people in the bar,” he said.

Neighbors of the bar, who requested anonymity, said: “As a rule, we don’t hear too much noise. It’s never been too bad that we’ve had to file a complaint, and the person in the house right next to the bar told us he’s never had any complaints.”

As for the coke bust, Martin says that is is something that could happen in any bar. “I could give you the names of a couple of yuppie bars in Boston where there are lines to the bathroom for coke,” he said.

He also said that the bartender involved in the drug arrest was off duty at the time, and that he fired her immediately afterward.

More than 30 residents of Avon and surrounding communities have written the board--almost all of them in support of Shooter’s.

“This has enraged me no end,” one Avon resident wrote. “Mr. Selectman, are you as a town official going to stand up against something so desperately needed in this town? . . . Staying sober is not a crime.”

An alcohol detoxification center in nearby Quincy and members of an Avon liquor store’s softball team also sent letters of support.

But Martin says he does not want to fight the decision because city officials have ways of making him sorry if he does. He says he already has been visited by town building inspectors and public health officials looking for violations.

“I just want to go back to the status quo,” he said. “I’ve got a mortgage and a baby on the way. I’m not rich. I can’t afford to be shut down.”