Buckling under the pressure of heightened sensitivity on social media, Olde Tymer’s Café, after a more than 30-year run, will no longer be “cheating tourists and drunks.”
The reference, of course, is the slogan of one of Main Avenue’s longest-running restaurants, whose wait staff since the early 1980s has been wearing T-shirts proclaiming the tongue-in-cheek catch phrase.
Though owners Keith and Kevin Roessler could not be reached for comment, General Manager Mike Shepard told The Durango Herald the decision to take the slogan off employees’ attire was made a couple of months ago.
“Well, with the whole social media era, they just don’t get the joke,” Shepard said. “Most people get it. But the people that complain, they don’t have anything better to do than go on social media and take it for a ride.”
And Shepard’s not wrong. One of the first sites to pop up in a simple Google search on Olde Tymer’s is a TripAdvisor.com review from poster Katie S. titled, “They really do cheat tourists and drunks!”
“The food was good, most importantly is what is written on the back of their company T-shirts ... ‘we cheat tourists and drunks,’” wrote Katie S., who gave the restaurant two stars. “We tried to get clarification on our bill and our server had such an attitude that we paid it and left ... knowing full well we got ‘cheated.’”
Olde Tymer’s opened for business on the corner of 10th Street and Main Avenue, at the location of the historic S.G. Wall Drug Store, in 1981, as a business venture undertaken by four friends with a history in the restaurant industry.
“It was always the intent to create a concept where local people could really congregate,” said Roger Roessler, one of the co-founders.
Roessler couldn’t recall exactly where the slogan originated, but he guessed it could have come from a restaurant magazine with different marketing ideas. He did remember, however, that when it was brought up, it immediately stuck.
“The Texans back in those days – and there were so many of them – many were offended by it,” Roessler said. “They didn’t take kindly to the tongue-in-cheek nature of it. But it certainly caught on as something that sold a lot of T-shirts.”
After almost three decades, and a handful of buyouts, Roessler bequeathed Olde Tymer’s to his nephews, Kevin and Keith, who, said Shepard, decided to do away with the prodding catch phrase.
Though chatter among some regulars hinted that the Durango Area Tourism Office or the Chamber of Commerce pressured the restaurant to reconsider the slogan, the executive directors for both of those boards denied any such initiative. Shepard also said it wasn’t changed because of any one instance with a customer.
“It came down from the owners that maybe we should rethink this,” Shepard said. “But it’s obviously a joke, come on. We’re not really cheating tourists and drunks.”
Patrons of the casual burger joint, on the Facebook page “If you are from Durango, CO, remember when ... ?” were not happy with the change, citing an increasing sensitivity pervasive, now more than ever, in this culture.
“I am sorry that political correctness has reached this establishment,” Ree Rose posted. “If it’s been there (sic) slogan leave it alone let those losers cry whine and whatever.”
“You can’t say anything anymore with out offending someone,” Vickie Kasal Dosenbach added. “That (is a) sign someone has no sense of humor.”
Roessler, for his own part, does not lament the loss of the slogan.
“The restaurant is certainly not about that slogan,” he said. “It’s just not an important part of what we’re doing. There was never any serious in it.”
Shepard said that for Olde Tymer’s loyalists who still want to tout a thirst for “cheating tourists and drunks,” the original T-shirt is available for purchase.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
