Under a new ordinance approved by the Anchorage Assembly at its Tuesday-night meeting, restaurants in the city can now start serving alcohol as early as 8 a.m. to capitalize on brunch and early morning sports.
Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant proposed the change, recalling that the restaurant industry widely requested an 8 a.m. open time as the city worked on passing an alcohol sales tax. Prior to the change, restaurants could not start serving alcohol until 10 a.m. Voters approved that sales tax in 2020, which generates about $15 million a year.
“I believe that the brunch hour is a worthy offering to the operators who made it through the pandemic, who are making it through the transformation of our economy into a cannabis economy at the same time there’s an alcohol economy going on,” he said. “This is an opportunity.”
Various restaurant and bar trade groups, as well as some individual businesses, supported the measure. They said the extra two hours would benefit the tourist economy and people hoping to watch early morning sports, including the early slate of NFL football games that begin at 9 a.m. in Alaska.
The measure also ends the later Sunday opening time for liquor stores. Under the prior law, liquor stores in Anchorage weren’t allowed to open before noon on Sundays. The change allows them to open at 10 a.m., which is when they can open the rest of the week.
The measure leaves the closing times for bars, restaurants and liquor stores unchanged.
The lone voice of opposition came from Tiffany Hall, the director of Recover Alaska, a nonprofit that works to reduce alcohol abuse. She warned that the measure would increase alcohol consumption, arguing that the city should maintain the few hours when alcohol isn’t being served at restaurants.
Constant said he was sympathetic to the concerns but felt that the restaurants could serve customers responsibly.
The measure passed on a 10-1 vote, with Assembly member Anna Brawley casting the lone no vote against the change.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.