POLITICS

Political Scene: RI is one of the only states that bans 'happy hour.' Should that change?

Antonia Noori Farzan
The Providence Journal

Earlier this month, treasurer Seth Magaziner released his plan to revitalize Rhode Island's economy if he's elected governor. 

One idea stood out: Legalizing happy hour. 

"It’s a way to help small businesses, especially small businesses in the restaurant and hospitality sector that have really been struggling," Magaziner explained in an interview with Political Scene. "It’s an easy lift. It would not cost the state any money."

He's not the only one who thinks it's time for Rhode Island to repeal the 1980s-era ban on happy hour: Fellow gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes says that she agrees. And Rep. Karen Alzate, D-Pawtucket, recently introduced a similar proposal in the General Assembly. 

"We’ve seen so many really great restaurants close," Alzate lamented. Letting restaurants offer drink specials, in her view, would be a way to "get people in the door."

These RI restaurants have closed:Three in Providence, one in Cranston. Here's why.

Anthony Santurri behind the bar at Freeplay Bar and Arcade in Providence, which he owns. Santurri says that many bar owners struggle to bring in customers between 4:30 and 6 p.m.

Rhode Island is one of only eight states with an outright ban on happy hour. (The others: Alaska, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Vermont.) The measure was intended to cut down on drunk driving, but those clamoring to overturn it say that there's other ways to address that issue.

"Why are all the other states able to do it?" asked Anthony Santurri, who owns Freeplay Bar and Arcade and the Colosseum Night Club in downtown Providence. "Why is it that Rhode Island has to be the one that doesn’t do something?"

But the powerful trade association that pushed for to-go cocktails says that the issue isn't as "cut and dry" as people may think — and that some bars and restaurants would prefer to stick with the status quo. 

The case for happy hour: Getting people to stick around after the workday

Magaziner told Political Scene that his proposal to legalize happy hour was inspired by bar and restaurant owners who are "just exasperated that Rhode Island would over-regulate them in this way."

"This is something I view as unnecessary red tape," he said.

Santurri was one of those business owners. He's supported Magaziner in the past, and the candidate asked him what Rhode Island could be doing to help out small businesses, he said. He didn't have to think too hard about the question.

"For most of us who have a bar, it’s hard to get people in from 4:30 to 6," he said.

General Treasurer Seth Magaziner says he sees Rhode Island's ban on happy hour as "red tape."

Encouraging people to stay downtown and have a drink after work could mean that bartenders "have a couple of hundred dollars extra in their pocket at the end of the month," Santurri said. "That's real money."

Santurri, who's been vocal about issues affecting Providence nightlife, serves on the Jewelry District Association's board of directors and ran for a seat on the City Council in 2020. (He won't be running again because he's moved to North Smithfield, he said.)

He argues that legalizing happy hour wouldn't just benefit the "battered" hospitality industry — it could also help combat the isolation that's become part of so many people's lives during the pandemic. 

"I truly, truly believe that we don’t talk enough about the lack of socialization," he said. "We need ways to reconnect with each other."

Pairing drink specials with food seen as a way to avoid 'chaos'

Alzate came to a similar conclusion after talking with servers and bartenders — and visiting other states with less-restrictive policies while on vacation.

"You can just see that restaurants are full, people are having a good time, and the majority of the time they’re not over-served," she said. 

But she's not arguing that Rhode Island should revert to the way things were in the old days, when you could order two-for-one drink specials without any food to soak up the liquor. 

"That to me just sounds like chaos," she said.

Instead, House Bill 7060 would allow happy hour drink specials "as part of a larger transaction that includes a meal." (That means food "which is sufficient to constitute breakfast, lunch or dinner," not snacks like popcorn, the bill text notes.)

"It sort of forces you to eat something," Alzate said.

Take-out cocktails:Gov. McKee wants to make drinks-to-go here to stay to help small businesses

Rep. Karen Alzate speaks at a press conference held by the Rhode Island Legislative Black and Latino Caucus.

The promotions would give people an incentive to try out new restaurants, Alzate said. She suspects that happy hour would particularly appeal to millennials, who may not have as much money to spend on going out after work. (Alzate, who is 34, said it's been the subject of numerous conversations among her own friends.)

The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Carol Hagan McEntee, Justine A. Caldwell, John J. Lombardi, and Lauren Carson, all Democrats. (Magaziner said he hasn't had a chance to review Alzate's bill yet, but "conceptually, she and I are both in agreement on this.")

Gov. Dan McKee has yet to take a stance on happy hour. He's proposed another idea for boosting the hospitality industry: Permanently legalizing takeout cocktails.

"The Governor looks forward to reviewing this legislation as it makes its way through the General Assembly," said spokeswoman Alana O'Hare.

Some restaurants fear 'race to the bottom'

While Rhode Islanders may be ready for happy hour to make a comeback, not all bars and restaurants feel the same way. 

"The industry is a bit split on it, to be honest with you," said Sarah Bratko, senior vice president for the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. 

The association sent out a survey to its members last week, asking for their thoughts on Alzate's bill, and whether they'd be likely to offer happy hour specials if it became legal to do so. 

Since the responses are still coming in, RIHA hasn't taken a stance on the legislation yet. Broadly speaking, however, "some places are really passionately in favor of it, and others are equally passionately against it," Bratko said. 

For some restaurants, "there's a concern that happy hour doesn’t necessarily bring more customers into the business," Bratko said. Instead, it means that their existing customer base ends up spending less money on drinks — which is where many restaurants make their profits.

Of course, restaurants could always decide that they don't want to offer happy hour specials. But some have voiced concerns that if the option becomes available, the result will be a "race to the bottom," in which restaurants feel pressure to discount drinks so that they don't lose customers to other establishments, Bratko said. 

That's a concern that's more likely to come up in places like downtown Providence that have a high density of bars and restaurants, she added.

Another unintended consequence of legalizing happy hour could be an increase in the cost of liquor liability insurance, Bratko said. The RIHA is currently looking into whether that's likely to become an issue.

All that aside, some RIHA members are "very interested" in the prospect of legalizing happy hour, Bratko said. She suspects that there will be more enthusiasm from bars than restaurants.

For the association's purposes, bars are defined as establishments that make more than half their sales from alcohol, while more than 50% of sales at restaurants come from food. Restaurants tend have "a little bit less of a margin" when it comes to liquor sales, Bratko said. 

Asked about the potential for pushback from restaurants, Magaziner said he believes that "competition is a good thing in any industry."

"Part of having a thriving restaurant and hospitality sector in Rhode Island is allowing those venues the freedom to experiment with different types of marketing, and allowing that creativity to be utilized," he said. 

Why did Rhode Island ban happy hour?

Rhode Island's ban on happy hour dates back to 1985, when lawmakers nationwide were facing pressure to crack down on drunk driving.

Spurred by the death of a 20-year-old woman who was killed after leaving Braintree bar, Massachusetts became the first state to ban happy hour in 1984. Rhode Island followed suit a year later. 

The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Charles C. Baldelli, D-Woonsocket, "said it would not be good to have Rhode Island bars attracting Bay State residents for happy hours," The Providence Journal reported at the time. 

Legislators acknowledged that they couldn't prove that happy hours led to more fatalities, but argued that two-for-one drink specials were a piece of the puzzle. 

If the bill "prevents just one death, the debate should end right then and there," Sen. Richard R. Patterson, D-Providence, told The Journal. 

To the surprise of some State House solons, the Rhode Island Hospitality Association came out in support of the ban. 

"Encouragement of excessive drinking should be outlawed," David W. Balfour, the group's executive vice president, was quoted as saying. (The Journal noted that the association's members "generally does not include the neighborhood bars that compete for the happy hour trade.")

Fast forward nearly 40 years, and the emergence of rideshare services like Uber and Lyft has changed the conversation. Illinois repealed its ban on happy hour in 2015

Critics point out that there's much more social stigma attached to drunk drinking than there was in the 1980s — and that bartenders and waitstaff are trained to politely cut people off, or offer them complimentary food. 

A push to overturn Massachusetts' first-in-the-nation ban on happy hour is now gaining momentum, and may be on the ballot in 2022. About 70 percent of respondents supported the idea when polled this past summer.

Notably, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which had been a proponent of the ban, told NBC News that they no longer take stances "on the sales of alcohol to people who are 21 and older."

Where the other candidates stand on happy hour

Political Scene asked the other candidates who have announced plans to run for governor if they agreed with Magaziner's call to legalize happy hour. 

"Yes," Foulkes said in a statement. "Rhode Island should join the 42 other states that allow happy hour, but we need to do much more to truly support our local restaurants, bars, and hospitality industry."

Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, however, described it as "an example of a policy that might sound good but needs more work before it is ready to be promoted."

Some players in the hospitality industry "actually are cool to this proposal" because happy hour may not help with their bottom line, Gorbea noted in a statement provided by her campaign. 

"Before jumping into changing our laws to promote happy hours, Rhode Island should also consider opportunities to expand public transportation options that are accessible to all communities to proactively address any increases in drunk driving at a time when our kids are coming home from school activities," she added. "This could be done by working with companies like Lyft, Uber, and local taxi companies to offer sober ride vouchers during happy hour times to those going from a bar to their home."

Dark horse candidate Luis Daniel Munoz was also skeptical: "The idea that legalizing happy hour would strengthen an economy that is dependent on the overall health of consumers is short-sighted," he wrote in an email. Instead, he argued, American Rescue Plan Act funds should be used to "create a robust supplemental wage program."

The campaign of Rhode Island Political Cooperative co-founder Matt Brown did not respond by press time. 

'Other guardrails' in place to prevent drunk driving, Magaziner says

A recent series of fatal crashes, including one that killed an East Greenwich teenager on New Year's Day, have brought renewed attention to the problem of drunk driving. 

Could that make happy hour a hard sell? 

"I think it’s important to remind people that other guardrails will remain in place," Magaziner said. "Bars that over-serve customers are still opening themselves up to legal liability."

Requiring customers to order food if they want to take advantage of happy-hour drink specials "makes a lot of sense and is something that I would support," he added.

"We’re not trying to give people five cocktails and then put them behind the wheel," Santurri agreed, pointing out that the bar owners' desire to avoid a costly lawsuit is the same at 5 p.m. as it is at 11 p.m.

He agrees with requiring food, but said that since some bars don't have full kitchens, items like sliders or chicken fingers should count. 

In the early days of the pandemic, Rhode Island experimented with non-traditional approaches like takeout cocktails to keep bars and restaurants afloat, Santurri noted. Two years later, bars have re-opened, but the virus hasn't gone away and new variants continue to hurt business.

"We did some interesting things when we thought this was a crisis," he said. "Let's not stop thinking about the interesting and forward-thinking ideas we had. I think this is one we need to consider."