photo by: Sylas May

A marquee at The Bottleneck displays a coronavirus-related message on Saturday, May 2, 2020.

Maybe you have heard rumblings that the popular downtown bar and music venue The Bottleneck is expanding. I know I certainly have. Well, its owner tells me he’s looking at expansion options but doesn’t currently have any definitive plans to grow.

Yet, the mere rumblings of an expansion for The Bottleneck have produced a change that may shake up the downtown bar scene. How’s that? Three words: Revised Text Amendment (which is not a good band name and often does not make for good reading either.)

But this one might be more interesting than most because it may lead to some bigger bars in downtown Lawrence.

Generally, city code favors new restaurants over new bars in downtown Lawrence. The true bars — the places that don’t sell food — exist under a grandfather provision of city code. But because they are grandfathered establishments, they also are generally prohibited from undertaking significant expansions.

At least they used to be prohibited. A code change approved by commissioners as part of the commission’s consent agenda on Nov. 2 eliminated that prohibition on expansion.

That could be a big deal because it could lead to bigger bars. Now, if a storefront becomes vacant next to a longtime bar, that bar potentially could expand into the vacant storefront. Before the code change, that would have been very difficult to do, unless the bar wanted to start selling food and essentially become a restaurant.

However, the code change has raised some issues of fairness. For example, if a brand new entity wanted to open a new bar in that very same vacant storefront, it would not be allowed to do so.

“You couldn’t do it, and I find that interesting,” City Commissioner Courtney Shipley told me.

That’s because the recent code change did nothing to change another part of city code that requires new drinking establishments in downtown to have at least 55% of their sales come from food. Instead, the new code change applies only to what the grandfathered business — grandfathered because it existed in some form when the 55% requirement was created — can do in terms of expansion.

But Shipley told me this week that she’s open to having a community conversation about whether the 55% food requirement still makes sense for the community. She said that perhaps the 55% food requirement has been successful. Back when it was approved there was concern downtown was on a path to turn into a bar district like Aggieville in Manhattan.

However, Shipley said she also has heard from some people who believe the 55% food requirement instead has created a protected class of businesses. If you own a traditional bar in downtown, you have to worry less about competition than many other types of businesses. Landlords who own those grandfathered businesses also have supply and demand really working in their favor because there are only a handful of locations in downtown that can legally house a bar.

Shipley said she isn’t lobbying for a change in the 55% food requirement, but rather is questioning whether it is time for the community to discuss the issue again. She said that would involve lots of outreach including “public engagement and some town halls and some surveys and seeing what comments we can get out of not only downtown owners but also people going to downtown.”

“Right now everything I have heard is anecdotal, but I’m open to having the conversation,” she said.

That would be a big change for downtown. It would be pretty interesting to see if the community has the same concerns about downtown morphing into an entertainment district as it once did.

At this point, you may be feeling confused about how The Bottleneck got wrapped up in all of this and whether you are supposed to take your grandfather there. (Feel free, but it is not required under the grandfather clause.)

The Bottleneck is part of this conversation because it is one of the grandfathered bars in downtown. Owner Mike Logan indeed did ask the city whether, as a grandfathered establishment, The Bottleneck could expand. No, was the general answer. But, if the city changed the code, then it would be possible.

Logan told me his impression is that city planners had been thinking about proposing such a code change for a while, and The Bottleneck inquiry just spurred the process along. Indeed, the idea likely has been floating around for a while because the code change involves much more than grandfathered bars.

There are lots of grandfathered uses in the city. For example, an old duplex built in a single-family neighborhood is a nonconforming use. That’s the technical name for a grandfathered property (and yes, Nonconforming Use is a decent band name.) The old duplex couldn’t really expand before, but now the code change makes expansion possible.

Logan said he was fine with The Bottleneck being used as an example of why the code change should be made, but he said that doesn’t mean the bar and music venue at 737 New Hampshire St. is definitely expanding.

There is some vacant space next to The Bottleneck. Logan said he’s looking at options, but a formal plan hasn’t been developed because he didn’t want to waste time and money developing one if city code wouldn’t allow it.

That said, Logan seems to have a few possibilities on his mind.

“In my industry, we’re reading the tea leaves, and people want to be separated apart a little bit,” Logan said.

He said more bands are inquiring whether venues have separate “meet-and-greet” spaces for fans and bands to connect before or after a show. That’s a new revenue stream, plus some bands want to be assured there’s appropriate space for pandemic-related distancing.

Plus, Logan said he’s trying to think a few years out about the changing nature of business models. For instance, it has become a trend for retail to add liquor and drinks to its business model, pointing to Sunflower Outdoor & Bike as an example. Perhaps the inverse will also be true.

“Down the line, do I want to add retail?” Logan asked. “Do I want to do some virtual reality stuff? How do we round out what we are offering?”

But Logan also said he didn’t want people to worry that there are major changes on tap for The Bottleneck, which has gained a reputation as an old-school music venue. Logan stressed he doesn’t have any imminent plans to announce

“I don’t want people to get all worried that I’m trying to change this landmark,” Logan said. “There are no plans and no dollars to do that right now.”