Mayor has bar in sights
Zecca says tavern not about to change the way it does business

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

The American Bar, which has been in business since 1938, is under fire from city officials who say the establishment is preventing downtown revitalizion in Gallup. (Photo by Jeremy Schneider/Independent)

GALLUP — The biggest obstacle by far in Mayor Bob Rosebrough's mind in the revitalization of downtown Gallup is the continued operation of the American Bar.

"We can spend millions of dollars but we are not going to be able to revitalize the downtown area as long as the American Bar is operating as it is," Rosebrough said Thursday.

This battle over the American Bar has been a long-standing one with city leaders going back to the 1960s, but no city leader has been more active than Rosebrough in trying to get the bar to either relocate or change the way it does business.

But the owner of the bar, Joe Zecca, says what Rosebrough is trying to do is to "keep the Indian people from going downtown and that's just not right."

Zecca is now in his 50th year of running the bar one of the oldest if not the oldest in town and says that everyone has to admit that the situation downtown is better than it was 20 years ago. That's when drunks loitered on practically every corner, throwing up on passers-by and panhandling for more money to buy liquor.

But Rosebrough said that he still gets a lot of complaints from business owners in the area who claim that the bar's operation is still causing them to lose customers. And it's especially difficult, he added, for women who want to walk downtown.

Rosebrough said the problem with the bar is that it is just a bar. People go there to drink and not eat and by 11 a.m. "you have 25 to 30 people who are alcohol dependent just hanging around and drinking."

The fact that they haven't eaten just makes it easier for them to get drunk and if the people running the bar feel someone has had enough to drink, they just stop serving them and require them to leave. They leave the bar but many of them still hang around downtown causing problems.

That's why, he said, police are called to that area more than any other area in town.

Zecca, however, doesn't like it when Rosebrough or others put the blame on the downtown drinking problems solely in his lap.

He points out that he does serve sandwiches and cheeseburgers and complies with state and city laws requiring drinking. Yes, if someone becomes a problem or has had too much to drink, he will request that that person leave the premises.

But many of the people who are causing the problems downtown bring their liquor with them, purchasing it at other places and coming downtown because that's the way it has been in Gallup for decades.

Despite these efforts, Zecca said, the city has gone out of its way to harass him and the Native Americans who frequent the downtown area.

"They park a police car out front and a paddy wagon for an hour or two in the back to scare off my customers." he said.

He said he has also seen police go up to a Native American who hasn't been drinking and is sitting in the walkway minding his own business and tell him to leave the area.

"No one is on the walkway anymore," he said.

He doesn't like what he is seeing and thinks that Rosebrough is using Gestapo tactics to make him give up his business and he's not about to do that.

"I don't know why he's doing this," Zecca said. "I've done nothing to him."

Rosebrough said the solution to the American Bar problem is simple: Zecca has to be more concerned about doing what "is in the community interest and not thinking solely of his pocketbook."

Rosebrough said he still hopes to be able to convince Zecca to change his approach and make it a downtown sandwich bar that will also attract non-Indians, much like a Bennigan's or a Chili's.

That's not going to solve the problem, Zecca said, since the Native Americans will continue to come downtown as they have since the 1950s when liquor sales to Native Americans was approved by Congress.

As for him changing the way the bar operates, that's not going to happen.

"What he wants is for me to spend $300,000 and put in a kitchen," he said. "It's too late in the game to do that."

But Rosebrough is adamant that something must be done, pointing out that the city does have legal remedies available.

But to do that he needs two other votes on the city council and right now he's not sure he has those.