Oshkosh has liquor licenses, but no one wants them

Pat Purtell cannot remember a time in the last 40 years when a liquor license went unused in the city of Oshkosh.

Purtell, the owner of Terry's Lounge and president of the Oshkosh Tavern League, said there has always been a pent-up demand for licenses for neighborhood taverns, downtown bars, riverfront restaurants and frontage road chains since the current quota system was implemented in 1997.

Until now.

City Clerk Pamela Ubrig has three unused licenses and no applications for them. Demand used to be such that Ubrig's staff kept a waiting list of interested parties, but that list was discarded in the past year as outdated and not reflective of current conditions.

With no current applications, the Oshkosh Common Council is taking a patient approach to their sudden windfall of liquor licenses. On Tuesday, councilors told City Manager Mark Rohloff they'd like to give the business community the winter to develop proposals before making a decision on whether to allocate any of the licenses in early 2015.

"Maybe we'll keep all three of them … depending on the projects that come forward," Mayor Burk Tower said.

In the wake of the recession, the proliferation of special events and the business climate tavern owners face, Purtell questioned if anyone would apply for the licenses.

"I think they'll sit there for awhile," Purtell said. "I don't think they will fill them. To get into our business, you'd better be willing to invest some hours. You can make a healthy living, but you've got to be willing to work hard at it."

Oshkosh is no anomaly, though.

Tavern League of Wisconsin Executive Director Pete Madland said Wisconsin has gone from having the most liquor licenses per capita in the nation to third behind North Dakota and Montana. He said state data shows the roughly 15,000 liquor licenses available statewide when the quota system was adopted in 1997 have declined to about 10,000 now.

"The fact licenses are available and no one wants to pick them up is not rare," Madland said. "As the culture changes, you'll find more of this. It's a combination of the economy, the smoking ban, the demonization of alcohol and move toward home entertainment. Where 30 years ago, of all alcohol sold, 65 percent was on-premise (consumption) and 35 percent was off-premise. Now, those figures are flipped."

The three licenses the city now possesses belonged to The Spot, the former Jackson Street club; Walleye's Pub, a Sixth Avenue pub that closed more than a year ago; and the split-level bar on West Ninth Avenue that has been vacant for some time.

Beyond that, several longtime neighborhood taverns have seen a revolving door of new operators, some of whom don't even make it a year in business.

Purtell said trying to revive a tavern with a poor reputation or lack of sales rarely works for entrepreneurs looking to get into the bar business.

"If people want to invest in our business, get an established business with a good reputation. I don't recall anyone buying a run-down establishment with a bad reputation and turning it around," he said.

Rohloff told councilors he hopes the delay will improve the quality and planning that goes into applications to use the available licenses.

"Three months will give us adequate time to make the public aware. And with three months, I think we'll get stronger projects out of (applicants) and you'll see a better impact on the community. With liquor licenses, you want to be cautious about them."

Jeff Bollier: (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com.