BOISE, Idaho — Recent legislation has changed the game for one downtown Boise bar.
On Feb. 1, Spacebar Arcade lost its ability to serve liquor after the lease for the liquor license they were using expired.
The popular arcade bar had been serving liquor for the past year, since they moved into their current location at 620 W. Idaho St..
The bar is still open, but can now only serve beer, wine and canned cocktails.
"We've met all the requirements to have a liquor license," Spacebar co-owner Will Hay said. "Clearly, because we had one for the past almost year."
Hay said the future of the bar is now in limbo. Haunted by ghosts of Senate Bill 1120, which was passed into law last year and states that liquor licenses administered before 2023 can only be sold one more time, and that is game over for the leases.
"That license has grown its term, the contract is up on that. So we're left without one," Spacebar co-owner Zack Rowland said. "Our means of obtaining another one - all the doors have been closed on it."
To get a liquor license, the arcade bar would either have to go on the waiting list on a state quota system, which opens spots as the city's population grows.
"It's looking about 15-20 years," Hay said. "So Zack and I would be in our 60s before we were able to get a license."
Or, the bar could buy a liquor license from another business. They said in Boise, the license would cost $300,000, a lot of coin.
"Which is insurmountable for us, we can't come up with that kind of money," Rowland said. "But a big chain or corporation maybe that's from out of state, $300,000 is chump change for them."
Spacebar also applied for a Continuous Operation License, also know as a Historic License. But their application was denied, stating the Venetian Building that Spacebar operates in does not meet all requirements for the application, with the point of contention being around a previous closure in the building's history.
The Alcohol Beverage Control division of the Idaho State Police oversees the state's liquor licenses, and historic license are rarely given out.
Spacebar's owners said the state needs meaningful change. So they are trying to put the pieces together and get the ball rolling on reform.
"The quota system is essentially like a broad brush that they painted over the entire state and said, 'This is how we're going to operate,'" Hay said. "But that's not how Idaho is, we're not homogenous, we're not all one, we have different elements in different places. So the quota system just makes it hard for all of us to operate."
Hay and Rowland said they have talked to ISP, legislators, other business owners and chambers of commerce, and want to draft legislation to change the state's liquor license laws.
"I think Idaho should really focus on that idea that we need to support small businesses, and we need to support local businesses and make it easier for them to operate in this state and in the communities as well," Rowland said. "Rather than some big corporation from some other place."
The Spacebar Arcade owners have started a petition to change Idaho's liquor license quota system. While they work toward change, they have also set up a fundraiser to raise money to buy a liquor license.
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