LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington’s Urban County Council will vote next Tuesday on whether to expand alcohol sales at restaurants on Sundays to 6 am.
Right now, they can only start serving at 11 am. It’s a holdover from the era of once-popular blue laws. For many years, Lexingtonians couldn't buy alcohol at restaurants at all on Sundays.
Should the proposal pass, alcohol sales at restaurants would have uniform hours throughout the week, going from 6 am to 2:30 am
“It just doesn't’ make sense that on the seventh day, the busiest day for brunch and breakfast - that we can’t serve,” said Winchell’s owner Graham Waller.
He spearheaded the effort to get the law changed, speaking to council member Dave Sevigny and other restaurants like Carson’s and Malone’s - they were all on the same page.
“I felt I had a responsibility as a business owner, to the customers, to the city, to my employees, that we have got to get this changed,” Waller said.
Sevigny said as someone who often goes to church on Sunday morning, he had never really thought about the issue before. He got it on council’s agenda.
The proposal made it through committee and will see a final vote on Tuesday, he said.
One restaurant owner told him this would allow them to make a half million dollars more than they do now.
“I believe it will make a difference,” Sevigny said. “For me it’s mostly about fairness and treating all days the same.”
That includes being fair to third shift workers, who may treat their 6 am like other workers 6 pm - around happy hour time.
There are also an increasing number of reasons why people may want to drink on a Sunday morning, like morning football or soccer games, the bourbon trail being open on Sunday, and Keeneland now holding Sunday races, Waller said.
It also is something that would help tourists who may become frustrated with not being able to drink on a Sunday morning, Sevigny said.
