http://www.statenews.com On warm days when downtown East Lansing is bustling, the patio at Dublin Square Irish Pub is often at capacity. But because of a city ordinance many local restaurants want to see rescinded, the inside of the restaurant is half-empty. en-us Foundry4 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:39:13 -0500 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:39:08 -0400 webmaster@statenews.com http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13572/view Like the lady from Harper’s knows anything about customer service. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:35:08 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13572/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13578/view Frank may have just said the truest statement I’ve ever heard in my life… Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:21:56 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13578/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13580/view Two things here… (1) As a former Harper’s employee, Frank hit the nail on the head. (2) When will American government stop catering to and regulating the stupid. If a customer is on the patio and gets caught in the rain, and there are no seats because the inside is full…that’s not bad customer service, that’s a customer that’s stupider than the other hundred or whatever who decided not to risk getting wet. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:37:18 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13580/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13595/view Let me try to understand this – and please, if you get it explain – EL wants to draw business into the city. But, when businesses tell the City an ordinance hurts business, the City won’t do anything about it. In fact, “it would take a change in philosophy by the City Council” to help local business? And exactly why does the planning committee have influence over ordinances? No wonder this town can’t get its crap together. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:24:05 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13595/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13602/view HAHA Frank is dead on. I love taking my family to Harper’s when they visit, but even at lunch you have to plan on spending 2 hours there…. raining or not Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:15:03 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13602/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13610/view I don’t want to beat a dead horse… pulls out stick, but I will. Harper’s has the worst service of any restaurant I’ve ever been to. And not just sometimes, it’s consistently like that. It’s one of the few things I don’t miss about the town. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:12:15 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13610/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13622/view The city of East Lansing requires all businesses to reserve the same number of open spaces inside a location as the number on a patio. What does this line mean? That the capacity is to include the inside and outside, or that for every person sitting on the patio, that there has to be an open seat for them inside also? Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:00:29 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13622/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13624/view How about just requiring the restaurant to keep on hand enough rain coats to distribute to those who chose to sit on the patio on a rainy day. Problem solved, without hurting business on the vast majority of days. Government micro-managing is entirely stupid – this is a business decision. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:19:17 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13624/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13626/view Confused: It means that there have to be enough empty seats inside the establishment as there are occupied seats on the patio. That’s why the article reports that they have to turn people away when they have empty seats inside if their patio is full. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:54:15 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13626/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13636/view By ordinance, the city of East Lansing actually requires Harpers to have awful service, cold food, and disgusting beer. And for some reason, the city also requires my department to always want to go there for happy hour. Bastards. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:14:26 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13636/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13648/view Does this mean that the patio outside of the Peanut Barral will be closed in the summer as well? I don’t see the point of summer anymore. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:39:08 -0400 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/13648/view