Party poopers: NYC cracks down on bar dogs
Start spreading the news. Dogs, despite the many drinking establishments in New York that let them in, are against the rules, and the city health department is making it a point to enforce them.
That means — even though everybody knows his name — dogs like Miles, a 9-year-old boxer-pug mix who has been going to Ace Bar in the East Village all his life, is no longer welcome there .
Citywide, it’s the end of a tradition — an illegal tradition, but a tradition all the same, the New York Times reports.
The crackdown applies indoors and out, and even to bars that don’t serve what you and I might consider food. “Beer, wine and spirits have always been classified as food,” a department spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Times.
As a result, Miles can only forlornly look in the door when he passes the Ace Bar on his daily walk, said manager Justin Saunders. “Every time Miles walks by, he tries to come in.”
“He’s a dog, but I swear he looks sad,” said Miles owner, Mike Israely.
While it has always been a violation of the city’s health code to allow a dog in a bar, the health department has decided to enforce the rule — clearly the work of buzzkilling bureaucrats who don’t really understand dogs, or bars.
“Bars are built around characters,” noted Andrew Templar, an owner of Floyd NY in Brooklyn Heights — an establishment that drew both the canine and human variety.
It recently received a violation notice after health inspectors twice observed dogs on the premises this summer. “Now it’s just people and their people problems,” Templar complained.
Ace at the anonymous Baltimore bar where he idled away much of his youth
The health department issued 469 violations for live animals in food-service sites from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011.
The Times article recounts a long history of dog-friendly drinking holes in the city. At P.J. Clarke’s in Midtown, when a collie named Skippy died, patrons pitched in to have him stuffed. He sits atop a ledge above the entrance to the handicapped bathroom.
A few bars continue to allow dogs, but — unlike the New York Times — we’re not going to name them, lest health inspectors be trolling the Internet.
(Top Photo: By Christian Hansen for The New York Times)
Posted by jwoestendiek August 29th, 2011 under Muttsblog.
Tags: ace bar, atmosphere, ban, bar dogs, bars, beverage, characters, crackdown, dog friendly, dogs, dogs in bars, drink, enforcement, food, health department, illegal, inspectors, miles, new york city, rules, tradition, violations
Comments
Comment from Lee Seidman
Time August 29, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I can concede the point indoors in a restaurant. I believe people have the right to be able to dine without dogs in the room and I say that having two dogs myself.
I do not agree that if I want to sit at a table outdoors and have a drink that I can not have my best friend by my side…..do you restrict the people sitting at the tables who may not have very good personal hygene, what about the construction worker stopping for a beer on the way home before he has a chance to shower, or the congressman that has been campaigning in the hot son and smells like a fish…..Do you prohibit the loud conversation of a rude patron on a cell phone, do we go back to the days of segregation? What if I pass by an outdoor restaurant drinking some bottled water with my dogs…..am I subject to arrest? The sidewalk is a public area, how can you tell me I can not sit at a table with my dog and not have a drink?
My dogs are clean, have no odor and are well behaved. We are being over regulated by big brother to an extreme and I for one am sick and tired of it. Let the inspectors go chase vermin, roaches, and disease…..Leave my dogs alone and give me the right to sit outside and smell exhaust fumes in our polluted city and enjoy a cool drink on a hot summer day!
Comment from vida
Time August 29, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Honestly if I see a dog in a bar I want to go in. Seems like a homelike atmosphere. And as long as they’re not behind the bar or fetching the chips for you, why not?
Comment from Anne’n'Spencer
Time August 30, 2011 at 8:18 am
I guess if you brought along a six-pack to the dog park to be consumed among more congenial friends, you’d be busted for drinking in public?
Comment from sophie
Time August 29, 2011 at 9:28 am
USA needs to take notes from Europe about being more dog friendly in establishments. If the owner of the bar or cafe allows pets then that should be enough of an approval, anyone that doesn’t like it can go to a non pet friendly establishment. Health codes? I rather have well behaved dogs around me then nasty 2nd hand cancer causing cigarette smoke or crying babies raising my blood pressure in a restaurant or anyplace else for that matter and those laws/rules have actually gone into effect with restaurants and airlines! I vote in favor of the dogs because they are good for my overall health happiness factor! Health inspectors need to focus on making sure establishments do not have cockroaches, rats or expired/contaminated foods and that counters/dishes/bathrooms are kept sanitary!