On a Monday around 5 p.m., when a happy hour crowd would normally be gathered at the bar, Local Cue was quiet.
Leah Vaughan had hoped to be serving alcohol again by the start of football season, but the longtime owner of the sports bar and restaurant hopes it will be come playoffs.
Six weeks after ceasing all alcohol sales at Local Cue — due to what she said was a cost-prohibitive liquor liability insurance rate — Vaughan has applied for a new alcohol license and hopes to reinstate alcohol service as soon as it is approved, likely within the next four to six weeks.
The new opportunity comes after Vaughan and her team spent the past month digging into every possible option for bringing alcohol costs down. They fielded inquiries about selling Local Cue, and Vaughan talked to insurance brokers across the state about ways to reduce her liability insurance rate.
Ultimately, a solution was found through a longtime customer.
Brian Shelton has been going to Local Cue for years. He is an entrepreneur who is part-owner of a number of local restaurants like Tipsy Taco. He approached Vaughan with a proposal. He’d be the owner, while the longtime proprietor would remain the driving force of the restaurant and bar as a partner.
He also offered to help restructure it in a way to lower insurance rates. Now, Local Cue is an all-ages restaurant that serves great food and still has pool tables and darts — but not as many as before.
“I believe in Leah (Vaughan) and I believe in her staff and I believe in the Local Cue,” Shelton told The Post and Courier Aug. 27. “I believe they are an amazing establishment and have been for 10.5 years and that was her dream. And I didn’t want to see that dream go away because of what I feel like is something that is unfair that is happening our state right now.”
What’s next for Local Cue?
Things are not settled completely, but there is a path forward. Shelton found an insurance company that “was very fair in a policy,” he said.
The business has reapplied for an alcohol license. The process takes around four to six weeks, which means Local Cue won’t have beer to serve with their wings when Clemson faces off against the Georgia Bulldogs Aug. 31. But they hope to be able to by the first week in October.
“We are doing everything we can to have all the I’s dotted and t’s crossed so the minute it comes in we can get back to normal and we hope everyone comes back,” Vaughan said. “I hope we get back to where we were, but it’s scary not knowing.”
Why did Local Cue stop serving alcohol?
Local Cue was thrust into the spotlight in July after announcing the business would cease selling alcohol after being quoted an untenable liquor liability insurance rate. Vaughan rate’s went from $60,000 three years ago to $109,000 in 2023.
This year, the rate quoted was $340,000, Vaughan said, the equivalent of going from paying $200 a day for insurance to $1,000 a day.
Proposed legislation to help address the root cause of rising rates failed to pass earlier this year at the Statehouse.
Instead of closing, Vaughan banked on the merit of the sports bar and restaurant’s food. The bar axed its 21-and-up policy, opening to all ages. Staff brought in high chairs and added a changing station in the bathrooms. They added kids’ games to the watering hole’s extensive collection of board games.
But business dropped 70 to 75 percent, Vaughan said. And without help, she knew the changes were merely an attempt to stay open, not a guarantee.
While others statewide are struggling with high liability insurance rates, legal issues are driving Local Cue’s up even more. The Haywood Road restaurant is named as a defendant in at least two alcohol-related injury lawsuits from 2021.
Under South Carolina’s Dram Shop Law, victims of an alcohol-related injury can sue every establishment a defendant visited for the full amount of the insurance no matter what level of liability, as reported in a previous Post and Courier story. For example: if a person had one or two drinks around noon at one establishment, then drank at four other bars before causing a car accident at midnight, all businesses at which the person drank could be sued equally for full liability.
Vaughan has maintained that she respects the laws in place and that her staff is trained and acted appropriately in each case. But she lives with a level of fear now.
“I spent the last year freaking out about it, worried every day about every decision I make and how it’s going to affect my new insurance policy and was I going to be able to stay in business,” she said.
Ultimately, she couldn’t pay a $341,000 rate, but she also couldn’t just walk away from the place she had built with her father over 10 years ago.
Vaughan opened Local Cue after spending decades in the hospitality industry, including time at Brennan’s in New Orleans and Greenville’s Table 301 Restaurant Group. The vision for a sports bar with really good food and a warm atmosphere came in part from her father, whom Vaughan cites as her inspiration and a key partner in creating Local Cue.
Vaughan’s father died just a month before Local Cue’s first anniversary.
“I love this community and what we created and I don’t want it to go away,” Vaughan said. “I feel like it’s worth fighting for.”
Local Cue said it will begin serving alcohol again by early October. The restaurant sports bar will remain all ages and plans to continue its newly robust mocktail menu.
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