Big Lagoon Rancheria Files Formal Protest Against Costanzo’s Bid To Reopen Sidelines Bar

Stock photo by TJ Bruder on Unsplash

The Big Lagoon Rancheria, owner of Hotel Arcata, has filed a formal protest with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control opposing Salvatore Costanzo’s application for a liquor license at 732 9th Street in Arcata, the former home of Sidelines Bar.

The protest, submitted June 25 by Hotel Arcata General Manager Sherrie Potter on behalf of the Rancheria, asks the state to deny Costanzo a new license, citing the bar’s history and its past effects on the neighboring hotel.

Sidelines lost its ABC license in 2020 after a Humboldt County Drug Task Force investigation, conducted alongside ABC agents, found evidence that employees participated in or facilitated narcotics transactions inside the bar. Costanzo appealed the revocation twice to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board, and the board upheld the revocation both times.

In the attachment to the protest, Potter wrote that fights regularly occurred inside and outside Sidelines before its license was pulled, and that loud music blared through a shared wall with Hotel Arcata several nights a week until 2 a.m. She wrote that the noise drove guests to check out early and avoid returning. Potter also wrote that the alleyway between the two buildings became a site for drug sales, public sex, fights, and smoking directly beneath the hotel’s windows, and that because Hotel Arcata is a historic building constructed in 1914 without air conditioning, guests had to open their windows for ventilation, allowing smoke into their rooms.

“The operations of Sidelines Bar had a disastrous effect on the hotel’s business, making it impossible to operate successfully and causing severe financial harm,” Potter wrote.

Costanzo owns the building where Sidelines once operated and has said he wants to reopen it there, according to prior reporting by the Lost Coast Outpost. City Manager Merritt Perry told the Outpost that Costanzo’s other Eureka bar, the Myrtlewood Lounge, has operated without issues for years, and that the city is interested in seeing more businesses open along that stretch of the Arcata Plaza. Costanzo has not been charged with a crime in connection with the drug activity at Sidelines; at the time of the original investigation, he and his son, who managed much of the bar’s daily operations, said they were unaware of the activity taking place.

“It’s been over eight years already,” Costanzo told the Outpost. “All the accusations — I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. Eight years, water under the bridge.”

The protest is now a matter of public record with the ABC. Under the department’s process, Costanzo will be notified of the protest and, if the department recommends licensure, both sides will have the opportunity to request a hearing.