90-year-old bar claims Pierce County city is targeting it with midnight liquor cutoff
Covering the ceiling of a 1934 neighborhood dive bar in Ruston are hundreds of dollar bills adorned with the names and signatures of patrons past. Embedded in the bar top are dozens of half-dollar coins next to more names, dating back decades. Upon a visit Friday night to the Unicorn Sports Bar, patrons laughed and chatted over pints of beer and sank billiards with satisfying thuds.
Citing “increased incidents and community reports” related to public intoxication, disruptions of the peace, public urination, fighting, damage to personal property, littering and driving under the influence, the city of Ruston is considering banning establishments like the Unicorn Sports Bar from selling alcohol after midnight. If approved, the ordinance also would force “licensed establishments selling alcohol for on-premises consumption” to cease operating at 1 a.m.
After some heated discussions in October, the council is expected to talk about the ordinance more on Nov. 19. Local bar owners aren’t happy.
According to council minutes from Oct. 1, council member Jenn Jensen said she was in favor of the ordinance and said residents of Ruston have requested action about public intoxication, noise, reckless driving, littering and loitering for years, and it could no longer be tolerated. Jensen also said businesses are an important part of Ruston but have a responsibility to coexist peacefully with the community, according to the minutes.
Council member John Holland said he appreciated the community involvement and public comments made about the long-time problem and encouraged establishments to be part of the solution to solve the over-serving of alcohol, according to the Oct. 1 minutes. Hedrick later said he agreed with Jensen that nuisance issues during quiet hours can no longer be tolerated and said he was very concerned about the issue. Council member Jim Hedrick encouraged businesses and residents to reach out to Ruston council members with their input before Oct. 15.
Mayor Bruce Hopkins and council member Lynn Syler were excused from the meeting.
The Unicorn Sports Bar, 5302 N. 49th St., is one of five bars in city limits open past midnight. Its owner, her son and the bouncer, told The News Tribune last week they believe the business is being targeted by the city based on the grievances of a few neighbors. The bar is open daily until 1:45 a.m. and most of its patrons come in around 11 p.m., said David Cason, who works security Friday and Saturday and tends bar Sunday and Monday.
The Unicorn Sports Bar already has cut into its sales by taking steps to address noise complaints, said Trevor Barker, a longtime employee and the son of the bar’s owner. After the city banned outdoor beer gardens from operating after 10 p.m., the business closed its covered patio to comply. Since the pandemic, the Unicorn no longer hosts live music or DJs, and Cason said there’s been fewer problems in recent years. Many of the bar’s patrons are regulars and industry workers, and Cason scans all their IDs at the door. As someone who’s worked there for nearly 20 years, Cason said, he can tell when someone’s had too much to drink and will make sure they’re cut off.
If the ordinance passes, Cason said it would “devastate the business … because we’d have to stop serving [alcohol] before midnight.”
“It would probably take half of the business away,” he said.
During a first reading Oct. 1, most of those who spoke at the public hearing, including seven bar owners and employees, spoke out against the ordinance, claiming it wouldn’t address the problems the city is seeking to fix. Other businesses that would be impacted include Coles Bar & Grill, North End on Pearl and the Silver Cloud Hotel Tacoma at Point Ruston.
“At that first meeting it was made very, very apparent that though the ordinance was going to be sweeping and affect all of us, it was one trouble … business that was causing all the issues,” said Seth Colby, operations manager of Coles Bar & Grill, Hank’s Bar and Pizza, Parkway Tavern, Terry’s Office Tavern and West End Pub.
Colby told The News Tribune a council member also mentioned that a patron had left the Unicorn Sports Bar a couple weeks ago and hit four parked cars, two of which belonged to Ruston City Council members. Colby said that made him believe the city was using its platform to address an issue that upset city officials personally, rather than take a direct approach with the problem business.
If the ordinance passes, Colby said, Coles Bar & Grill would be affected two hours two days a week, but he said, “It’s just another example of Ruston being unfriendly with business, which is frustrating.”
“All of us, we put a lot of money into that community to build out those places. And for us at Cole’s, an old historic bar right there on the main strip of Ruston — it was the decrepit building that was falling into itself when we bought it, and we put a ton of money into it so that we could help build that community,” Colby said. “We’re invested in that community, and it feels as though the City Council is maybe ignoring that.”
Are Ruston bars a problem?
Brian Smith is with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. Smith said the city of Ruston isn’t usually a problem area for its enforcement team. In the past two years, only the Silver Cloud Hotel Tacoma at Point Ruston has received any complaints — a total of two for over-service, one in March 2023 and one in March 2024. The Unicorn Sports Bar received no complaints and no violations.
The News Tribune filed a public records request with South Sound 911 requesting all incident reports made related to public intoxication, disturbing the peace, public urination, fighting, damage to personal property, littering and driving under the influence at places like the Unicorn Sports Bar, Coles Bar & Grill, North End on Pearl and the Silver Cloud Hotel Tacoma at Point Ruston in the last year.
Of the 25 reports received, five were noise complaints related to the Unicorn Sports Bar dated Aug. 2, Aug. 15, Sept. 21, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8. There was also a report that someone had broken into the bar and attempted to rob an ATM at the establishment in April.
Of the four bars, the Silver Cloud Hotel had the most 911 calls this year, which included a complaint about a man who went into a staff area looking for someone, an intoxicated man who was asked to leave after making other guests uncomfortable, a motor-vehicle theft, a hit parked car, two found wallets, a man who locked his key in his car, three firearms left in hotel rooms, an overdose, a welfare check and a choking baby.
The North End on Pearl had two reports, one about a fight involving an illegal firearm and intoxicated minor and another about unruly people outside the establishment. Coles Tavern had two reports, including one about an intoxicated patron who threw a pitcher of iced tea at a staffer and was trespassed and an intoxicated person who pointed something that looked like a gun at staff and left.
Two of the noise-complaint reports against the Unicorn were made by neighbor Vivian La Francoeur, who called police to report fights outside the Unicorn Sports Bar. La Francoeur also spoke in favor of the alcohol-sales ordinance at the public hearing Oct. 1.
In an Aug. 2 incident, officers determined a reported fight in the parking lot was in fact two brothers charging and hugging each other “like football players after scoring a touchdown.” On Aug. 15, a “verbal dispute” was determined to be three friends talking outside the Unicorn, according to Ruston police incident reports. As the women were getting inside their vehicle to depart, La Francoeur opened her window and started yelling at them, “escalating the situation,” according to police.
One officer wrote that the Aug. 2 call regarding the two brothers prompted his partner to respond urgently and with his emergency lights activated, which was unnecessary. That posed a risk to the public, the officer wrote. Calls like this are “an ongoing issue,” he said.
Contacted on Tuesday, La Francoeur questioned The News Tribune’s reasons for calling her and then declined to comment.
On Sept. 21, police responded to a noise complaint at the Unicorn, and Cason closed the beer garden in response. Later that night an intoxicated man was belligerent, and Cason pinned him to the ground and encouraged him to leave and get into the cab that was there for him. Cason told police the man was drunk when he arrived, and his behavior and condition did not seem to improve as the night went on, despite not seeing him order from the bar or have a drink in his hand. According to police, the man left after warnings of arrest by an officer.
A history of feeling targeted
Kye Barker, the owner of the Unicorn Sports Bar, has sued the city of Ruston in the past alleging targeted harassment.
As reported by The News Tribune in 2014, Barker contended the city sent its police force to her bar to unlawfully harass her, her employees and her patrons for at least eight years, resulting in emotional distress and financial loss. Barker alleged police officers would enter the bar and observe patrons or target them “without probable cause, through frequent running of license plates for warrant checks, following patrons to their cars and maintaining an intimidating presence both inside and outside the tavern,” the lawsuit stated.
The case was dismissed on a summary judgment at the trial court level. Barker appealed the decision, and the appellate court upheld the trial court decision to dismiss the case in 2018, according to court records.
According to the appellate court records, as of 2018 Ruston mayor Bruce Hopkins had lived within 150 feet of the Unicorn for 26 years, and both he and his wife made numerous noise complaints to Ruston police about the Unicorn.
Victor Celis, a Ruston police officer at the time who later became a city of Ruston police chief, said in a deposition he would sometimes go to the Unicorn more than once a shift to conduct “business checks” and run license plates on vehicles parked outside. He also acknowledged doing “undercover surveillance” there at the direction of former Ruston Police Chief Jeremy Kunkel, according to court records. Another officer, James Kaylor, said he would attempt to do his “bar checks” and “business checks” from the outside by talking to the doorman or looking in the windows because “he knew that Barker thought the officers’ presence hurt business,” records said.
A certified public accountant calculated that the Unicorn Sports Bar lost over $100,000 in profits from 2006 to 2013 and could have up to $24,000 in losses per year in future damages, according to court records. Barker ultimately lost the case because she didn’t have evidence to prove officials “exceeded their authority” and did so with “improper purpose.”
“The Unicorn is a business that sells liquor,” the court ruled. “It is therefore subject to inspection at any time.”
Most recently Trevor Barker said the city has made it more difficult for Unicorn patrons to park in a parking lot across the street.
“Over the years, as they’ve developed the city, [Ruston] has really changed how the Unicorn looks,” he said. “For example, our beer garden was pushed probably three, maybe six feet away from the sidewalk. The installation of new sidewalks on [North Baltimore Street] pretty much cut our parking lot capacity in half … and blocked one of our entrances to the parking lot.”
On Oct. 11 the business also received a notice from the city that customers can no longer use the bar’s long-time parking lot on North Baltimore Street because that use violates the city’s residential zoning code. The business was told it had to remove “Customer Parking Only” signage and refrain from using the lot, which the bar owns, by no later than Oct. 18, according to a code violation warning letter shared with The News Tribune.
Trevor Barker said the Unicorn has worked with the city to address issues at their own expense.
“We don’t have music. We’ve closed our beer garden [early] at our expense. It has cost our employees money, it’s cost the business owner money. It’s like, at what point, how much money are you willing to lose for someone to say you’re not doing anything?” he said.
“Ruston was originally a company town, working class, right? It’s just people with enough money to buy the extremely expensive homes located in Ruston being able to just push out members of the community that have been there forever. Maybe it’s just my opinion, but when you’re an original part of the community, having people move in and say you’re a bad neighbor is kind of crazy. It’s like, we’ve been here for a long time.”
Council member says he’s open to compromise
Only one member of the six-person Ruston City Council responded to multiple requests for comment about the proposed ordinance from The News Tribune. City Council member Holland said he’s served on the council for about six months after he was appointed to replace his wife Deb.
In an interview with The News Tribune last week, Holland said he considered the ordinance a possible solution to a “good neighbor issue.”
“In the middle of August at council meeting, during public comment, we received quite a bit of complaints from numerous residents about noise, and that they had attempted to talk to the owners of one particular establishment and nothing had been done,” Holland said. “I support the ordinance, but my mind can be changed, meaning that there’s at least a perceived issue with noise. There definitely have been some issues with DUI.”
Holland said he wasn’t familiar with the Oct. 11 notice the Unicorn received, and the city clerk did not respond to multiple requests for inquiry from The News Tribune about the matter.
Before he votes on the ordinance, Holland said he wanted to talk with bar owners, police and neighbors himself, and encouraged local businesses to work with the city to come up with “some type of mitigation plan” to address the issues the city has been hearing about. Holland said he’s frequented every place that serves alcohol in Ruston and although some are louder than others, “I’ve never had a bad experience in any of them.”
“I don’t want any business to suffer,” he said. “However, we have a responsibility to our residents that they can have a peaceful, quiet evening at home.”
