Rolling Pub Crawl Owners Sue City
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 20, 2011 1:35PM
Minneapolis-based PedalPub is a "bike-powered pub crawl." It's essentially a large bike, powered by 16 people pedaling, steered by a guide who sits behind a keg, that rolls from bar to bar. (Amstel Light has used a version of PedalPub in recent years around Wrigley Field.)
The owners of PedalPub have sued the city because they were denied a business license. PedalPub Chicago's Matt Graham said the city sees his company as a sightseeing operation. “Which we’re not," Graham said. "We can never be because we don’t operate a motorized vehicle.”
Graham is up front about Pedal Pub's intention to be nothing more than a bike-powered pub crawl. Having biked from bar to bar over the years ourselves, we're just a little bit jealous we hadn't hit upon this business model.
We can also see how the city is objecting to this, without outright coming out and saying the last thing they want to do is grant a business license to a rolling vehicle powered by drunks. Besides, the bike taxis at Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field already serve as ad hoc bike bar crawls already.