Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper signed House Bill 768 into law, rendering the often bemoaned membership requirement for private clubs — aka bars — no longer legally necessary.
While most Asheville bars are celebrating the new legislation, other spots have decided to keep the membership requirement. In order to better understand these varied reactions — and what local imbibers can expect moving forward — we spoke with bars across the 828. Here’s what they had to say.
Goodbye and good riddance
Kala Brooks of Top of the Monk, a craft cocktail bar in downtown Asheville, says her team is “ecstatic” about the changes. The beverage director explains “now we don’t have to spend five minutes explaining to each tourist why we need their personal information to serve them and bartenders can focus on giving better customer service because they are not hindered [from] spending long periods of time signing people in.”
Bars such as Gigi’s Underground, The Burger Bar, Getaway River Bar, Asheville Beauty Academy, and Little Jumbo have echoed this sentiment — and have already taken away membership requirements, with no plans to reinstate them.
“It’s not the smartest move for us to keep it,” adds Jay Medford of Gigi’s Underground. “Where we are, we get a lot of people who just want to see the space — so why not let them stay for a drink without the hassle?”
A case for keeping them
Bars such as The Golden Pineapple and Crucible plan to remain private, naming safety as their prime motivation.
Crucible owner Anna Toth says “we spoke extensively with our staff and together we weighed the benefits of membership against the potential risk. The benefits are extensive... but the [membership requirement] makes it simple to screen people, which makes our staff feel safe.” From now on, Anna adds, the $1 annual membership fee will be donated to rotating nonprofit organizations.
Golden Pineapple owner Katey Ryder is keeping memberships for similar reasons, though the bar has gotten rid of the $1 fee. “It makes sense for us to keep it as a way to manage past guests that have been problematic…the iPad system also makes it very easy to check for fake or expired IDs,” she explains. “It’s a filter to keep everyone safe.”
Other bars will wait and see
One of The Odditorium owners, Tamy Kuper, says that the West Asheville dive bar has temporarily paused membership requirements, but adds “we are still very confused by it all” and that “having someone explain this to us would be very helpful.”
Since The Odditorium is a private club with its own kitchen, Tamy is concerned about how the bar would possibly need to shift its business model + layout if it were no longer private — and she’s not yet sure about the best path forward. “We’re still trying to figure out what are the benefits of not being a private club,” she concludes.
Crow & Quill, a speakeasy-style cocktail bar in downtown Asheville, has also temporarily paused memberships. A spokesperson for the bar says “we are trying things out without the membership cards for now to see how it feels. If it doesn’t work out, then we’ll go back to the old process.”
