East Lansing businesses want to give residents a place to put their feet up, and kick their feet up.
Two downtown restaurants have requested the entertainment license required to have a dance floor: Troppo, 213 Ann Street, and Spartan Sports Den, 1227 E. Grand River Avenue. Each restaurant made a proposal this week to the East Lansing Planning Commission.
If restaurant patrons dance without the required permit from the city, the restaurant can lose its liquor license. The East Lansing Police Department told the city’s planning commission in a report Wednesday that people do try to dance at Troppo when music is playing.
Troppo also requested an approval from the city to construct a second-story addition to its building. The addition would include outdoor seating for 133 people and an enclosed four-seasons room with seating for 42 people.
Jeanne Rogers, East Lansing community development analyst, will continue to research the positive and negative points of the proposals. The planning commission will decide on its recommendation at its Feb. 14 regular meeting.
Rogers said she thought changes to Troppo would be an appealing look to see in the city.
“I think it would make it more attractive,” Rogers said. “You’ll be able to look out over the plaza and the new City Center.”
However, not everyone in the city is as excited by the changes the establishments want to make. Councilmember Beverly Baten said she is bothered by the amount of alcohol being consumed at bars with dancing. There are currently nine city restaurants with a liquor-dance permit.
“I’m concerned with the end result,” Baten said. “There is a vast amount of alcohol we have in these two blocks. I’m concerned about the number of places that we have down here bringing in fine dining and then putting in a dance floor. I don’t see how those go together.”
After the proposals from the restaurants are discussed by the planning commission, the city council will make the final decision whether to grant the permits.
BW-3, 220 M.A.C, recently went through the process of applying for an entertainment license. And General Manager Chad Ball said the process wasn’t difficult, but very time consuming.
“It’s not a for-sure thing,” Ball said. “It’s really a ‘consider yourself lucky’ if you do get one. It gives you a lot more freedom, but if you get a bigger crowd, there’s going to be more drinking.
Ball said city merchants are noticing advantages other businesses have with the permits.
“Maybe because (Troppo and the Spartan Sports Den) see that other bars are doing it, and want to follow along.”
Maryann Pretko, a family community service senior, said a dance floor would attract crowds to the businesses- that may not be the best for patrons.
“We like it because we just sit there and relax,” Pretko said. “There’s not tons of people who are all drunk and all over the place. It’s more laid back.”
As a regular at the Spartan Sports Den, Pretko said a dance floor might change the atmosphere of the bar, and bring a new, unfamiliar crowd.
“I don’t picture the crowd there as being a real dancing kind of crowd,” she said. “I think it would be more like other bars then. It sets out a little different right now because it’s a little more casual.”
