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Worcester considers letting bar stay open hour later so drunks can sober up
By adamg on Sat, 03/28/2009 - 11:50am
Last call would remain 2 a.m., but the tipsy could sit around for another hour to get ready for the ride home.
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Comments
Its a good idea, and I
Its a good idea, and I believe bars in england do that (or used to when last call was 11pm).
However, most major bars will see no incentive in doing this. No added revenue (unless they can still sell food)
clubs in nyc
Bars may close at 4am in NYC, but lots of dance clubs and lounges remain open after last call. It's usually the places with a high cover to get in, anyway, so revenue is not an issue. I remember leaving places to find daylight outside...back in the 90's.
I've also made an argument for 4am closing on UH before. If you stay open very late, people will leave a few at a time, rather than having to deal with the entire contents of every bar and club hitting the streets at once.
Last Call vs. Closing
I never understood why bars had to close at a fixed time. I can understand the last call time, but I'm not sure what the justification is for any given last call time.
It would simply make more sense to tell the bars that they had to stop serving at 2am or whenever, and let them decide when to close after that. You don't see Fenway turning people out after the seventh inning stretch, afterall!
The theory
The theory that I've always been given is that because of the highly mixed zoning in our faire olde citye, the bars have to close by a certain hour or they and their patrons will be too loud for the nearby residents. So, people request that everything shut down at 2 AM so that they can sleep.
If memory serves ...
It means that large nightclubs less than a block away dump out in a mass whump at 2am, and you lose any and all sleep until 3am when they all manage to find the car they were looking for, pee on every tree, scream loudly and randomly in groups and to each other, etc.
I think it would be saner, given mixed zoning, to let people drift away on their own time after last call.
and lets be honest not all
and lets be honest not all of these people are going home. They are finding the local IHOP or something thats open 24 hours or very late.
The problem is, and its a legitimate concern, how do you enforce this? Last call is at 2am, and your open till 4, how do we know that your not serving past 2? At least if the bar closes at 2 a cop who drives by can see that the lights are out and cars are gone. We actually had a local place get hit with a big fine in the past, they would shut the lights out up front and had a back area where they continued to serve well past 2am. They had apparently been doing this for years, and even had a "secret knock" for people in the know. I had no clue, but apparently the whole thing came apart someone new moved in across the street and noticed people taking liberties in her front yard at 4am and could not understand where they were coming from. I wish it ended up in the paper, but I think the owner is friends with the editor, ya know small towns.
24 hrs
Good luck. I think there's only 1 IHOP in the area that has a 24 hr permit and it's out at Soldier's Field Rd in Brighton in the middle of nowhere relative to residences. Other than that, there's a few Tedeschi's that are also not close to many residences that are given 24 hr permits. 24 hr permits are extremely hard to come by in the city and basically it's for the same reason as closing the bars early. Noise control and "quality of life" improvement in mixed zoning. It's a shame, but that's the way people always go around here for no good reason.
Dont forget though
that a lot of these kids will have after hours parties after the bars close as well.
And what time does Rednecks in Brighton Stay open till these days?
Redneck's
3 AM. Natalie's Pizza on Comm Ave next to Joshua Tree is also open until 3 AM. I'm a bit of a night owl (it's 2:50 AM as I write this, actually) so I'm pretty familiar with where I can get a mid-night meal around here.
Also, someone mentioned the IHOP in Harvard Square. They originally opened only until 2 AM because the licensing board turned down their request for 4 AM. I think that was reversed not too long ago.
Harvard Square IHOP is open 21 hours a day
Closes at 4 am, reopens at 7 am.
Huh, thats interesting.
Huh, thats interesting. Seems like they stay open to accomadate the college kids leaving the bars at 2am. The Worcester people should look into that area and see if the IHOP is an issue.
Ever Read Kerouac?
It seems there used to be a significant diner culture in these parts, with restaurants open all hours or extended hours to pull in the after-bar crowd.
I have also heard tales from local elders that Chinatown was always good for a late-night feast and soaked up a fair amount of post-club traffic from Scollay Square.
Long time local here
Long time local here remember ;)
Yeah I know people who talk about all sorts of diners being open all night or until 4/5am. There were also apparently places that actually opened up at 2 am and stayed open until noon when they would close after lunch, especially in the areas near truck routes. People are going to stay out and will find what they are looking for one way or another. I think its smarter to have places that are easy to get to so people are not driving around drunk. I vaguely remember being drunk once and we ended up on the masspike because apparently there was a late night food court at one of the pit stops... The person driving was being responsible but still had something to drink and it was late, it would have been much safer if we didnt have to venture out to a highway to find a place for the rest of us to sober up.
A smart bar, if the rules were easier to abide by, would have a bar and then own a diner style location right next door where the diner was open late.
during that three-hour closing time...
...they are marinating their hash browns in grease.
I wasn't aware of the
I wasn't aware of the restrictions effecting Tedeschi's. I guess I've been spoiled by the 24 hour Tedeschi / Dunkin Donuts on Centre St. in JP.
Nothing like being able to grab a blueberry muffin at 1 AM on a Wednesday.
Last Call
Last Call in the US and Canada
Not sure what closing time is in these places though it does mention that San Jose has a slightly earlier last call but allows places to stay open to 3am. That sounds sensible given that it lets you finish your last round slowly and hang around to chat. Perhaps MA should look at similar situations in cities in the US and Canada to see what works/doesn't? The current situation seems in line on the state level at least, just unusually inflexible on the major city front.
Im not 100% sure,
but bars in MA can have last call whenever they want, but the latest possible time any bar can have is 2:30am meaning every patron must be out of the bar by that time. I think employees can stay 1 hour after close and can clean up and even drink if they want too.
Cities and Towns can restrict closing times for bars however, as bars in Brighton Center have to close at 1 I believe.