Although a recent shift in Porter’s Pub ownership prompted
swirling rumors that the tavern would be converted to a weekend sports bar,
these rumors have been quelled by both employees and former manager Robert
Porter, who assure that the pub’s original integrity of the pub will remain
intact — save a few requisite surface renovations.
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Related Links June 1, 2006 — "Pub Lease Uncertain as Year Ends" |
Porter reopened the UCSD tavern in his name as a graduate
student in 1993 through a joint effort with the Graduate Student Association
and A.S. Council. Since then, Porter’s Pub has been one of only three locations
on campus licensed to serve alcohol and hosts university-run events and
concerts on its patio and stage areas year-round.
However, in its 2006 three-year lease renewal, the pub met
demands from university administrators to remodel outdated kitchen facilities
and other offensive exterior violations, or risk being replaced by an outside
venue. The administration estimated the renovations to cost nearly $100,000.
Lacking the financial means to pay for administrators’
requests and facing potential eviction, Porter sought out personal friends
Stephen Lawler and Moses Muñoz — proprietors of mortgage investment company
Labrador Enterprises — to discuss the possibility of buying Porter’s Pub as a
last attempt to keep it afloat.
Over the following year, Lawler and Muñoz agreed that the
student-minded tavern was a lucrative enterprise. Then, on Feb. 15, Porter’s
Pub fell under sole ownership of Labrador Enterprises.
“Stephen and Moses have been coming by the pub to observe
and get a feel for the place over the last year or so,” Porter said in an
e-mail. “Frankly, if they didn’t view it as a special kind of place, they
wouldn’t have seen the value in committing to invest in the place the way they
have.”
But the managerial transition was not a smooth one.
Employees disagreed with many of the changes that Lawler and Muñoz had in mind.
The new owners believed the pub could be made more profitable by showcasing
sports events, opening the business on weekends for longer hours, and hiring
nonstudent, professional bartenders.
“They originally wanted to fire all the students and bring
in outside workers,”
employee Steve York said. “They wanted to come in, buy Porter’s out and change
the place. The first day they got here, they walked over to the TV, turned on
the Lakers game, and started playing gangster rap.”
Furthermore, the new managers allegedly proposed omitting
all traditional discounts such as “Dollar-Off Mondays” for GSA meetings, and
discouraged employees from giving special consideration to clubs or friends.
The new owners ignited considerable employee backlash, and
10 of 13 employees threatened to quit within the first week of Lawler and
Muñoz’s arrival. On Feb. 23, they delivered a petition to Lawler that stated
their contentions with the new changes. Muir senior and Porter’s Pub employee
Tyler Kraus largely orchestrated the movement, saying he was spurred by the
pub’s core ideals.
“I was not about the let [the new managers] spit in the face
of Porter’s Pub, or turn it into a bastardized facsimile,” Kraus said. “It will
remain as it has for 15 years.”
Porter’s 1993 proposal to administrators premised the
enterprise on a positive working environment, stating that a strong
employee-manager relationship is “the first step to a friendly atmosphere for
customers. Worker’s input … will be sought after and considered.”
This guiding philosophy, along with the signed petition,
convinced Lawler to extinguish many of his controversial changes and reach a
compromise.
“When Stephen realized that over 75 percent of the employees
didn’t want to work [at Porter’s], it kind of blew his mind,”
said. “He apologized and said that it would be harder to start from scratch
than transitioning and renovating.”
The management then held a meeting with Porter and staff
members to issue both a verbal and written apology and to discuss future plans
for renovation.
While the new lease is still in escrow, the details for
structural expansion, new menu items and updated facilities are currently being
dicussion.
“Porter’s Pub is going to be what Rob Porter always wanted,
but never had the initial capital for,” Kraus said. “It’ll have giant community
benches, like
in
Big-screen TVs will play surf videos and the Discovery Channel — it won’t be a
sports bar.”
The new lease also guarantees 12 nights out of the month for
independently hosted parties and for student clubs and organizations to hold
events at the Porter’s stage. Staff members hope these events will attract a
broader and more diverse customer base.
Additionally, a full kitchen is purportedly scheduled for
expansion over the summer — one of the administration’s requirements in the
updated lease agreement.
“There will be new grill tops for everything from burgers to
Philly cheese steaks, and other extended menu items,” Kraus said. “We’ll have
hired cooks outside the student body.”
Ultimately, the new management and staff at Porter’s will
aim to preserve the qualities that have established it as a celebrated and
historic social setting at UCSD.
“I’ve been a bartender in
and am an avid beer drinker; there isn’t anywhere that has what Porter’s has,”
senior and regular Porter’s customer Kris Gregorian said. “I love all kinds of
beer, but mainly the good kind — and, Porters has that. … I feel like the old
of other people, imagined college to be like.”
