Restaurant serving hours MUST change

Cinderella may have to go home early, but many living in Vancouver still want to have a drink.

Later hours for serving alcohol at restaurants are coming to Vancouver, as a staff report that will be presented to Council next Thursday will suggest extensions to 1am on weekdays and 2am on weekends.

To this, I say it is about bloddy time, and hallellujah.

I just had a cousin in town from Montreal, and upon finishing a movie late at about 12:15 on a Tuesday, he was shocked at our inability find a restaurant where we could go for a late-night snack and a beer – in downtown Vancouver, no less.

There seems to be complete unity on passing these staff recommendations, as evidenced by Suzanne Anton’s simple and effective quote on why things need to change:

“The bigger picture is we’re an international city in terms of the need in the city and people who come to the city and travelling, and people who live in the city, and people don’t all keep 9-to-5 hours anymore. Lots of people want to be up later at night for one reason or another. And, yes, I do believe the city should be able to accommodate that” said Anton to the Georgia Straight.

Well spoken, Councillor.  There are many signs of urban maturity that Vancouver lacks, particularly to those internationals visiting from jurisdictions where late night drinks are second nature, or at the very least, the possibility of one is seamless.

In Vancouver, zoning restrictions are ridiculous.  Liquor primary licenses are rarely issued outside of the Granville Entertainment District, and restaurants licenses restrict alcohol sales to match, but never exceed, the amount of food sold.

An extra hour of alcohol sales would do wonders for restaurants that have taken a significant hit with the HST (the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association estimates the industry will lose $750 million annually as a result of the new tax, representing an annual loss of 7.5% or nearly $50,000 for the average restaurant in the province).

Why shouldn’t people who want to head out to their local pub a little later than usual have that opportunity?

Those that counter with noise concerns, health effects of increased access to alcohol, and questions of who will pay for increased policing are the curmudgeons that for many years have propelled most NPA dominated Councils to use tunnel vision in setting the balance between residents and bar/restaurant patrons.  And the bar owners who talk about gangsters being attracted to restaurants as a result of this change are playing little more than market protectionism.

The label of Vancouver being a “no-fun city” still remains around the edges of our fair metropolis, and only incremental changes like the one that will undoubtedly be voted for unanimously next week are going to do anything to counteract that image.

Hopefully with a political party in power that does not rely soley on the blue hairs and blue bloods of the west side of Vancouver for support, the city will begin to loosen up.