By Maja Peirce
The Buffalo Chip Saloon is joining more than 110 bar owners across Arizona to sue Doug Ducey for how he defined his COVID-19 related executive order on June 29. The executive order stated that bars who own a class six and seven liquor license could only continue to serve the public through pick up, delivery, and drive-thru operations.
Illan Wurman, an attorney and associate professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, filed the lawsuit as the attorney of the 110 bar owners.
The suit argues that class six liquor license owning businesses were unjustly generalized in Ducey’s executive order. A class six liquor license allows a business to sell beer, wine, and liquor to their customers for consumption without any requirement of selling food. It also allows take out and delivery of beer and wine.
The Arizona Department of Liquor uses R19-1-206, criteria for issuing a restaurant license set forth by the Arizona Department of Liquor, to determine if a bar meets public health order requirements for dine-in services. Although a class six liquor license is a bar license and not a restaurant license, many businesses have a majority of food sales over liquor sales.
Other class six liquor license owners in Cave Creek such as Danny Piaquadio, owner of Harold’s Corral, are experiencing similar repercussions due to Ducey’s order but are not involved in the lawsuit.
“We are still at 50% capacity and we have been inspected 4 times since we reopened in August. We passed every one which is kind of frustrating that we are still being targeted especially when I bet not every restaurant is being inspected. This is to be expected though and we are happy to be open. We are following every precaution,” said Piaquadio.
Wurman started by representing approximately 26 bar owners who felt they were grouped in with the restrictions on bars yet were running essentially as “restaurants” and the number quickly grew to include Larry Wendt, the owner of The Buffalo Chip Saloon, and many others.
Wendt got his class six liquor license when he purchased the business in 1999. Despite selling a majority of food as opposed to liquor, The Buffalo Chip never bought a series 12 liquor license because they found it unnecessary. Their series 6 license allowed them to sell alcohol and as much food as they wanted. When COVID-19 hit, that changed.
When the initial executive order lifted on May 15, The Buffalo Chip attempted to do take-out-orders for approximately a month.
“Cave Creek is not a metropolis with office buildings and people eating lunch often. Most of the people have nice homes with great kitchens. We’re not known as a food destination. We tried to do take-out only but with very limited success,” said Wendt.
The Buffalo Chip was doing about 10-15 orders a day. After a month of trying to make ends meet, The Buffalo Chip closed until August 6.
Wendt said that they have been practicing social distancing, using hand sanitizer, doing temperature checks, wearing masks, and trying to get customers to do the same. They have no live music, no bull riding and have been using disposable cups.
They are running at about 10% of their typical capacity. The Buffalo Chip usually houses up to 1,000 people with large events such as bull riding. However, due to COVID-19 Wendt says that they are receiving far fewer customers.
“It’s just impossible to run. It takes the same amount of staff with COVID-19. We need extra security, extra hostessing and extra food running,” said Wendt. “So it’s just not very cost effective. We’re still doing it but hopefully by the election this [COVID-19] will go away otherwise we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
The Buffalo Chip has lost millions of dollars so far due to their COVID-19 customer depletion and Wendt says if their restrictions are not lifted within the next few months they may be forced to close.
