We wish to publicly welcome Field Pass as a new neighbor and restaurant in the University Square project. We look forward to its contributions to this exciting university-private partnership.
UW-Madison and the project developer signed a covenant that permits alcohol sales only in a business licensed as a restaurant in the University Square project. The Field Pass license is as a restaurant — at least 50 percent of its revenue must be generated through food sales. We hope Downtown patrons will respond and choose it as a restaurant destination.
However, we have experienced the creation of a large, expensive, mixed-use facility trying to succeed in a student and bar business area. We hope Field Pass, and the city of Madison, will learn from the Luther ‘s Blues experience and maintain the expectation that Field Pass be a “best practice ” alcohol-service establishment.
This includes training all staff to be responsible beverage servers, regularly and diligently using ID scanners, not using cheap alcohol as the “hook ” to bring in customers, and promoting itself primarily as a restaurant.
As we learned from the Luther ‘s experience, no amount of after-the-fact license negotiation can save an establishment that begins with inaccurate assumptions or a poorly conceived business plan. We hope, and trust, that Field Pass ‘s business plan will guide it towards becoming an exemplary restaurant establishment. We stand ready to help.
— Aaron M. Brower, principal investigator, PACE Project; and Susan Crowley, director, prevention services, PACE Project