Strawtroversy: Bremerton woman told not to drink beer from straw

During a social gathering at the Bremerton Bar & Grill March 14, Bremerton resident Tonya Deline asked to have a beer, and a straw to go with it. 

She said she got a puzzled look from her waiter, who gave a warning to her once providing the straw.

“He says, ‘I hope you’re not trying to drink that beer with your straw,'” Deline recalled. “We all thought he was joking.”

He wasn’t. (And, for the record, this is not an April Fool’s joke, either.)

That led to the illumination of a table-full of cell phones, each of its owners googling and searching for state laws that might ban straw-drunk beer. Deline decided she’d had enough and consulted the manager.

The manager backed up the waiter, she said.

“The whole situation made me very uncomfortable,” she said.

A friend called the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board to seek clarification. The friend was told no such law existed. I confirmed that as well.

“I don’t know of any reason why you couldn’t drink beer through a straw,” said Brian Smith, spokesman for the state’s liquor and cannabis board. 

I reached out to the new Bremerton Bar & Grill general manager, Jeffrey Kaune, who told me he was not authorized to speak to the media on the subject. But he did respond to a Facebook post addressing the issue, apologizing that it happened and noting he’d given a $100 voucher to the friend who’d contacted the liquor board.

He also wondered on Facebook about how the straw “myth” was perpetuated.

As LoveCraft Brewer Jesse Wilson joked: “There is no chance that drinking beer from a straw is illegal,” he said. “Immoral? Perhaps. Bizarre? Certainly.”

I say to each, his or her own. Deline, for her part, said she won’t be going back to the bar and grill. She said she likes to drink beer out of a straw to prevent spills. There’s no state law banning her from doing so.