• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 24, 2009

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Legislation that would help Chelsea’s Café and many similar restaurants stay open won final legislative approval Tuesday despite a last-minute attempt by some state senators to shelve the bill.

The Senate voted 22-14 for final concurrence on Senate Bill 136 to send the legislation to the governor to sign. But some senators first argued the legislation was giving restaurants free rein to open up as bars with cover charges late at night.

The measure needed 20 votes for approval.

SB136 still mandates that restaurants sell food every day they are open and that their average revenue from food and other non-alcoholic beverages exceeds 50 percent of their total average monthly revenue.

“This is not a restaurant bill. This is a bar bill,” said state Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe. “I don’t know a single restaurant that does cover charges. We know what this does. It’s not hidden at all.”

Bill sponsor Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, reiterated that the legislation simply clarifies state law that restaurants must primarily serve food, keep the kitchen open every day they are open and meet the 50 percent rule.

“It’s the combination of those three provisions that makes a restaurant a restaurant,” Jackson said.

The legislation is partly in reaction to recent state crackdowns on restaurants — Chelsea’s being the most public local battle — that have live music, charge for entrance and serve very little or no food late.

Baton Rouge’s Chelsea’s — under the Perkins Road overpass — is fighting a threatened suspension of its license because it features live entertainment and has cover charges late at night.

State Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Murphy Painter has argued that such restaurants are circumventing state law by becoming bars and concert venues late at night after shutting down their kitchens.

Opposition also came from New Orleans residents who complained about restaurants in their neighborhoods that operate as bars at night.

On Monday, state Rep. Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, said the Louisiana Family Forum, a religious-based lobbying group, was circulating a note among House members in which they claimed the legislation would lead to more underage drinking and to the destruction of local communities.

State Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, said the New Orleans issues were problems with local law enforcement not cracking down on local zoning and underage drinking issues. Neither state law nor SB136 is the problem, Martiny said.