Saying Goodbye to Grandma

You have two weeks to get to Grandma’s before a Minneapolis institution passes away. Still, it’s worth noting what the restaurant company’s president, Brian Daugherty, told the Strib about his decision not to renew his lease on the West Bank.

He said Grandma’s had been “legislated out of business” via the state’s smoking ban, a law that precludes restaurants from counting tips against the state minimum wage, and lower blood alcohol driving limits. “Legislators tell me jobs are important,” he told the paper. “I share with them how to save thousands of [jobs] without any downside to absolutely anyone . . . they vote against it.”

Wow.

I understand that it’s tough out there and the restaurant business is especially tough. But when restaurateurs convince themselves there is no “downside” when bartenders contract lung cancer, innocents are killed by drunk drivers, and servers can’t make a living wage, they are wearing blinders that cover their eyes, ears, and brain. And what explains Grandma’s success in Duluth, where it still operates several lucrative, smoke-free, high-wage, .08 alcohol restaurants?

It’s my opinion that those laws crimped Grandma’s, but the more serious ailment at its West Bank outpost was a terminal case of irrelevance brought on by an ultra-competitive restaurant scene.

Comments

[Jim]

The smoking ban may not have helped, but I'd say it was more the cockroaches and the ridiculously poor service that did them in. Good riddance.

[Michael]

Adam...are you kidding me?!

You need to do a bit of fact checking about "bartenders contacting lung cancer". Most bartenders I know wanted smoking to stay because statistics show smokers spend more money. Now every restaurant has gagles of people outside the front door smoking. In fact, I walked through it the other day and was infected with second hand smoke...

The "innocents" are definatly killed by drunk drivers, but the overwhelming majority of them are not from people that are .10 and on their way home from a restaurant or bar. The majority of incidents happen with repeat offenders that the law has not locked up. The real drunks are out there still breaking the law and killing people

As far as your "living wage" statement, you are answering like someone who doesn't understand the issue, but you watch a lot of local tv news. With tax and tip, the average outstate tipped employee earns in the neighborhood of $15 per hour and in the metro it is around $17 per hour. This is far more than your average kitchen employee. Repeat after me...tips are income, tips are income. 43 other states have figured that out and make it easier for restaurants to survive.

Minnesota continues to make it more and more difficult to do business. Someday you will wake up and only the chains will be left.