Owners of one of downtown Tuscaloosa's oldest bars say it won't survive unless the city council allows them to dramatically increase their occupancy limits - limits they save have only recently been enforced.

Bradley and Jeremy Wyatt have owned and operated Rhythm & Brews in Temerson Square for 27 years. They've found a formula for success at the honky-tonk, which draws large crowds on the three nights a week they're open with live music, line-dancing, mechanical bull rodeos and more.

Just one problem, though - the 4th Street venue is only legally allowed to have 240 patrons inside. The Wyatts are asking to increase that number to 413, but if a Tuesday meeting of the city council's public safety committee is any indication, they have an uphill battle ahead.

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Any Increase Requires Council Approval

To set the stage for the committee, city attorney Scott Holmes explained that a few years ago, the council was taking measures to ensure no bar could balloon in size without their approval beforehand.

"One of the things we discovered is that bars were able to come before the Council for an alcohol license as a smaller bar and then later expand into a larger bar without coming back before the council," Holmes said. "So you may approve something for a small cocktail bar and then a space next door opens up and all of a sudden, they can have 600 people, and maybe you wouldn't have approved them for a nightclub in that area."

So the council amended city code and now any time someone with a liquor license is seeking to expand, they have to seek permission as if they were applying for the alcohol license all over again. The council can't revoke an alcohol license this way - only the state ABC can do that - but they can vote against a proposed occupancy increase and keep the bar, restaurant or venue at the size they feel is appropriate and safe.

So in order for Rhythm to increase capacity, they must earn approval from at least four of the seven city council members at a public hearing scheduled for September 10th.

Why 240? Too Few Toilets

So how did Rhythm & Brews, one of the largest spaces in downtown Tuscaloosa, end up with a capacity limit so low?

Holmes said three factors could affect a business' maximum occupancy - fire marshall code, building code and plumbing code. The lowest number dictated by those codes is set as the maximum occupancy.

Rhythm is strange because the limiting factor when they opened in 2002 was not fire code, it was plumbing code. As security footage provided by Rhythm to the city council shows, too few toilets, especially in the women's room, led to long lines inside the venue and the as-needed deployment of portable toilets behind the bar to handle high demand.

As the Thread reported, the Wyatts addressed the issue by taking over the space when their next-door neighbor, Civil Axe Throwing, closed last year. They converted the niche attraction into nice, new bathrooms for Rhythm & Brews with the council's blessing, but that approval came with a caveat - the council wanted assurance the maximum occupancy would not increase from 240.

The Wyatts and their representatives said that wasn't a deal-breaker and the expansion has since been completed. But a little more than a year after they said they were not interested in an occupancy hike, they're back before the council asking to jump to 413.

So what changed? Well, in an interesting presentation to the Public Safety Committee, the Wyatts and their attorney, former Tuscaloosa City Councilwoman Cynthia Almond, seemed to argue that the rules have never really applied to them before.

A New Focus on Enforcement

Overcrowding at local bars has long been a concern of the city council and Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, but that really manifested last year when the council regularly voted against the creation or expansion of new gastropubs and bars and ultimately issued a moratorium on new bars altogether.

It was in this context that Rhythm was given the OK to expand and build the new bathrooms but not increase capacity. Since they got the green light, they have twice been cited for overcrowding - once for having more than 500 people in the building last September and again for having 619 people in January of this year.

In the committee meeting Tuesday, Almond and Bradley Wyatt said they would have petitioned to increase their occupancy limits last year if they knew the police department and fire marshall would begin requiring them to stick to it.

"When they agreed [last May] not to ask for increased occupancy, they did so assuming that they would be able to continue operating the way and at the capacity that they had been for 25 years - which was in excess of 240." Almond said. "If they had known when they were before you that they were not going to be allowed to continue to operate the way they had operated for the past 25 years, then their response would have been different."

Wyatt put it more bluntly.

"To upgrade our place has been the worst mistake we could ever make. You guys have never had an issue out of us. In 25 years, we've never had a problem and there's been a lot more than 240 people in there," Wyatt said. "There's been 600 people in that room a bunch of nights. Over 25 years, there's been a ton of nights we've had it packed."

He said they have also entirely suspended a lucrative business renting out the space for private events because almost all of them would exceed 240 guests and another violation could see the bar's business license revoked.

"We've operated this way for so long and never had a violation," he said. "Why would it now be a violation?"

Wyatt insisted the team at Rhythm isn't "trying to break the law," although he had just admitted to doing so frequently, and said the business will not survive without being allowed to get more than 240 people inside again.

Almond shared surveillance images the Wyatts said were shot when they were at current legal capacity and 240 people inside Rhythm & Brews. A huge area of the cavernous venue stands almost completely empty.

"We want to represent the city and have a good place and we want people to want to come to town and have a good time over there. But you know, it's been extremely hurtful the past year to be not near capacity - or not near crowded - and have to hold people up in line who just sit there and wait then leave," Bradley Wyatt said. "Quite frankly, we cannot survive at where we're at."

An Uphill Battle

The presentation this week was only to the three-member Public Safety Committee, not the full council, but it failed to earn a favorable recommendation from the committee.

Councilman Cassius Lanier moved to give the increase a favorable recommendation, but none of the other committee members seconded it.

The request to expand occupancy calls for a public hearing, which will be held next Tuesday, September 10th, after the council takes a week off to observe Labor Day, and the full seven-member council will vote on the matter despite its fate in the committee.

The request to increase Rhythm's legal capacity to 413 could still be granted but without the committee's recommendation, the pathway there is far narrower.

For coverage of the full council vote in September, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.