COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – A downtown mainstay of Coeur d’Alene’s restaurant scene went dark on Tuesday and the owner is blaming the closure on Idaho state law.
The Cellar restaurant was in business for more than two decades. Two years ago, a prominent local chef bought the restaurant, but what he could not buy was a state liquor license.
The Cellar had a lot of things in its favor, good food and a good location. What the restaurant did not have was hard alcohol. The owner said the lack of alcohol cut into their bottom line and blames the Idaho state law.
The old owners had sold their liquor license to a new restaurant. Therefore, by law, The Cellar could only sell beer and wine.
The owner of the Cellar, Adam Hegsted, also owns several Spokane restaurants which include the Wandering Table, the Yards, and the Gilded Unicorn. Hegsted purchased the Cellar in 2015 from its previous owners.
He estimated the lack of hard alcohol cost him around $300,000 over the course of a year.
According to him, Idaho law dictates that cities and towns are to have a fixed amount of hard liquor licenses based on population, one license for every 1,500 people. While cities can get new licenses as population grows, they are still hard to come by.
“To get liquor license, you have to buy one for $300,000, be on the list for 20 years, or lease one for somebody which is not available very often,” Hegsted said.
All of that compares to Washington, which has a “free market” system as Hegsted put it. Without a liquor license at the Cellar, he says business would not have been sustainable in the long run.
Hegsted is hoping for a change in the law and says he has been working with local Idaho state lawmakers. He encourages his customers to contact their lawmakers about the concern too.
“It make it hard to get a license. It’s very anti-business for the community. I live in CDA, I want to keep building it, but I can’t if it’s unaffordable,” Hegsted said.
As for the space itself, the actual owners of the space are looking to sell. It is not clear what will happen next.