LYNNWOOD — Bartender Wendy Rice knew the man was drunk when he nearly took a sip from an ashtray.
“I was like, ‘That’s it,’” said Rice, a bartender and server at Daverthumps Pub &Galley in Lynnwood.
She took his beer, refunded his money and offered to arrange a ride home. The man’s son picked him up.
“I always explain that we’re looking out for them,” she said. “Most people appreciate it.”
Watching patrons more closely is one of the steps the popular pub is taking to kick its reputation for not discouraging drunken drivers.
Daverthumps in 2004 topped a state list of businesses where drunken drivers say they were served before getting behind the wheel and being pulled over.
The pub was named by 75 drunken drivers as the place they’d been drinking, the state reported – 16 more than the No. 2 bar on the list last year.
Four other Snohomish County bars also made the list, according to the state Liquor Control Board.
The Lynnwood pub, at 19720 44th Ave. W., has a problem but probably isn’t the worst in the state, police and state officials said.
Better tracking by police in Snohomish County and more aggressive enforcement likely pushed up the numbers here, said Kate Miyasato, a senior enforcement officer for the Liquor Control Board’s Northwest Region.
“I was really surprised when the list came out,” Daverthumps owner Don Mayfield said. “We’d tried to do so many things to eliminate the problem.”
Daverthumps, which was No. 2 on the list in 2003, made several changes in the past year to drop its ranking, Mayfield said.
The effort reduced the average blood-alcohol level of the drunken drivers arrested last year, Lynnwood Police Cmdr. Paul Watkins said.
That means those who did drive drunk were less intoxicated than those caught in 2003, Watkins said. The average driver was just over the legal limit of .08 percent, he said.
Daverthumps “truly has a desire to take care of the problem,” said Watkins, adding that it can be difficult for bartenders and servers to detect when a person is too drunk to drive.
He and Lynnwood officer Mark Brinkman, who caught the highest number of drunken drivers in the county last year, joined state liquor officials at a training for pub employees in January.
“I think they’re sincere about trying to get things turned around,” Miyasato said. “They’re working on it, and we’re trying to work with them.”
The pub is limiting the hours it sells shots of liquor, doubles and pitchers. It also required patrons to order drinks from their servers, and not from the bar, after 12:30 a.m. as a way to better monitor alcohol consumption, Mayfield said.
Fliers are posted throughout the bar reminding patrons they’ll be cut off if servers believe they have had enough. Bartenders also offer to call for a safe ride home for anyone unable to drive.
“I’ve taken a few people home myself,” said Mayfield, who once gave a couple of intoxicated Canadian police officers a ride back to their Lynnwood hotel room.
Employees sign a form when they’re hired saying they can be fired if they’re caught serving someone who’s been cut off.
Mayfield also invited Lynnwood police to walk through the pub anytime. On a Friday night, up to 300 people stop in for a drink, dinner or to play pool.
He plans to meet with police every few months.
“If we can’t control the alcohol and number of DUIs here, we won’t be here. We’ll be out of business,” Mayfield said.
In the past few weeks, he’s seen more cars left in the pub’s parking lot after patrons get rides with sober friends or call cabs.
“It seems like people are getting the message,” Mayfield said. “We definitely do not take this lightly. We want people to come and have fun and get home safe.”
Katherine Schiffner is a reporter for the Herald in Everett.
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