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when it cracked down on several local all-ages
venues, beginning with the McKenzie
Ballroom in downtown Springfield. In re-
sponse to complaints — some say by racist
neighbors who did not like the Latin dance
nights that attracted a large Latino population to
downtown Springfield — the OLCC rewrote
state regulations to have different standards for
restaurants, dance halls and concert halls.
For dance halls, which the McKenzie
Ballroom fell into, the rules required a physical
barrier to separate where alcohol is being con-
sumed and where it is not. To answer that, the
McKenzie erected an unsightly wall right
through its center, but that didn’t stop the venue
from being closed down.
The OLCC then swooped down on the
WOW Hall, the Community Center for the
Performing Arts, which has always been all
ages, and tried to talk its managers into erecting
a barrier on its dancefloor, not to separate alco-
hol service from minors, but to separate adults
who had been drinking from minors.
The WOW Hall fought the walling off of its
dancefloor, but met the new dance hall regula-
tions by restricting the sale of alcoholic bever-
ages to its downstairs area, an obvious physical
barrier that allows easy identification checking
of its patrons.
But the time was difficult.
Bob Fennessey, WOW Hall publicist, says
“It was fortunate we had someone who was
looking out for our interests and that was state
Rep. Floyd Prozanski, a WOW Hall member,
who was our angel. When the OLCC was
rewriting the regulations, the WOW Hall was
held harmless.”
The law is different for concert halls, a cate-
gory that the Hult Center and the Shedd fall
into. The OLCC considers concert halls places
where “drinking is minimal, allowed in the
lobby before or after a show or during intermis-
sion, or confined to areas not accessible to mi-
nors,” says Green.
Concerns over alcohol-consuming adults
having access to minors in the lobby is not a dis-
cussion the OLCC has had with those venues,
as it did WOW Hall several years ago.
A new venue, Cozmic Pizza at the Strand,
offers wine and beer while the interior of The
Strand remains all ages. But that’s for two rea-
sons. First, when the evening entertainment be-
gins, there is an obvious cordoned off section
with a sign that says “Over 21 only.” The sec-
ond reason is that the Strand also houses a cof-
fee stand with sitting area, which the OLCC
“has no jurisdiction over,” says Green.
Green says for the most part, bars in Eugene
are “pretty good,” and under-age drinking is not
a big problem. “The penalties are big enough so
that there’s incentive to be careful,” he says.
The biggest problem the OLCC faces is
fake IDs, but OLCC employees go around to
various bars and train employees on what they
look like.
At Café Paradiso, because of the short no-
tice of the change, owner Fleener has not had a
chance to rebook future shows. “I’ll probably
do more dance bands,” he says.
As to her and her friends getting shut out of
their favorite hangout, Borke says, “It exempli-
fies the age stratification that continues to exist
in our community.”
ew
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OLCC shuts out minors, again.
tacy Borke, 20, and her friends fre-
quented Café Paradiso, where they’d
drink tea and eat pastries while they
listened to world and folk music and other acts
that interested them.
“I liked the size of the venue — it was small
enough to have an intimate experience with the
performance but large enough to accommodate
various group sizes,” she says. As for the cover
charges for shows, says Borke, “You get more
than you pay for.”
With those positive thoughts in mind, Borke
and her friends wandered into the all-ages
restaurant at the corner of Broadway and Olive
a few Friday nights ago to catch WYMPROV!,
an all-female comedy act that recently signed
on to perform regular Friday night gigs there.
But Borke and her friends were shocked to
find themselves turned away because they
weren’t 21, a brand new rule imposed by
Paradiso owner Greg Fleener that began that
night.
The 21 and over rule kicks in at 9 pm Friday
and Saturday eves and will go into effect at a
certain time weeknights beginning mid-
December or the beginning of January, says
Fleener.
“There aren’t too many venues like Café
Paradiso,” says Borke, “That’s why I am so out-
raged by their decision.”
While Fleener says he will book earlier all-
ages shows and bump up the open mic time to
accommodate minors, he didn’t have much of a
choice.
“The OLCC approached me a week before
the Eugene Celebration and said ‘We need to
talk,’” says Fleener.
He waited a month and a half, then the
OLCC finally got back to him, giving him two
weeks to make a change.
The OLCC wanted him to either bump the
age to 21 when evening entertainment started,
or move all drinkers to the rear of the venue,
where there isn’t much space and they wouldn’t
be able to see the stage, he says.
After consideration, Fleener decided to go
with 21+ during evening entertainment, and ex-
pand the wine and beer offerings to full bar
service.
“The more a place is not food-service ori-
ented, the more it then becomes something we
have to look at in terms of restricting access,”
says OLCC Regulatory Specialist Dan Green.
“In that place on certain nights, the focus is
more like an entertainment venue, so that’s ba-
sically what led to the conversation with Café
Paradiso.”
At other venues, like Sam Bond’s, minors
are allowed for the purpose of consuming food
but once the entertainment begins, it’s 21 and
over only.
Customers are notified of the regulation
through what the law calls “minor postings;”
literally, signs that say “No Minors” after a cer-
tain hour.
“The overriding thing for minor postings in
Oregon is that minors are primarily allowed in
areas where alcohol is being served for eating
purposes,” says Green.
Where the service is minimal, where the en-
vironment is more for entertainment, they’re
not.
A few years ago, the OLCC made headlines
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EUGENE WEEKLY NOVEMBER 26, 2003 9