Lenox expands restaurant liquor service hours

LENOX – Restaurant-goers will now be able to enjoy alcoholic drinks with their Sunday brunch.

Under Massachusetts law, restaurants and bars are, by default, not allowed to serve alcohol before noon on Sundays or Christmas and Memorial Day.

Municipalities can choose, however, to move the time an establishment can serve alcohol back by two hours, to 10 a.m. Communities can decide to adopt this as a blanket change or have businesses apply for earlier alcohol serving times individually.

Advocating for the selectmen to adopt this change at their May 15 meeting was Haven General Manager Bridgette Connery, who previously approached Selectman Channing Gibson about the issue and got it on the agenda.

“We do have a lot of parties that come in between 10 and 12,” said Ms. Connery. “They want to celebrate…and we say no quite a bit…it would be really nice to say yes to them.”

The selectmen were very amenable to changing the law.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to put [neighboring communities] at a competitive advantage,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman W. David Roche, speaking in favor of the change.

“I don’t think it would be a problem at all,” said Selectman Edward P. Lane.

Selectman John McNinch, who owns The Olde Heritage Tavern, chose to recuse himself, but the remaining four selectmen unanimously voted to change the law and apply the change to all liquor license holders.

The change applies only to pour-liquor sales.

“I think that was a great decision,” said Selectman McNinch, who in addition to recusing himself, decided to sit in the audience for the vote.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on May 30, 2013. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry