It was a typical Thursday afternoon in D.C., and I was, as usual, relaxing at a bar after work. She was a lovely young woman with vibrant brown eyes — probably an intern, like myself. Summer is intern season in D.C.; the bars flood with them at happy hour, especially at the Hawk ’n’ Dove.
I shoot her back a smile, and she starts walking toward me.
We make small talk for a minute before I find out that she was interning with NPR and just wants to interview me for a piece. I try not to look disappointed.
As it turned out, her piece was on how the recession was affecting the drinking habits of interns.
Most of the time, we interns went out for happy hour. The time was right and the prices were reasonable. It was a wonderful little tradition, unwinding over a drink or two after leaving the office. I grew rather fond of it.
I’ll never know if she quoted me, but I made my love for happy hour clear. Imagine my disappointment when, after returning to North Carolina, I couldn’t find a happy hour special anywhere.
It wasn’t until I queried a bartender in Chapel Hill that I found out why: Happy hour is illegal in North Carolina.
No establishment serving alcohol can have drink specials lasting less than the entire business day, per Alcohol Beverage Control Commission rules.
That’s great news if you like blacking out for cheap on Tuesdays. But if you would rather enjoy a leisurely drink on a Friday afternoon, expect to pay full price for it.
The more I looked into it, the grimmer the situation was for alcohol sellers. North Carolina has a rich history of arbitrary alcohol regulations.
Before 2005, beer with alcohol content more than 6 percent was illegal in North Carolina. When grassroots group Pop The Cap fought to raise the limit, former State Senator John Kerr strongly opposed them. He likened stronger beers to “drinking straight vodka,” and insisted that we think of the children.
Consider the facts: Sam Adams’ Utopias (the self-styled strongest beer in the world) is 27 percent alcohol, $150 per bottle and illegal in North Carolina.
Diesel, which is 95 percent alcohol, sells at the ABC store for one-tenth Utopias’ price.
It should be no mystery, even to a legislator, which of these drinks a cash-strapped teenager will try to get. Fortunately for enthusiasts of fine craft beers, the limit was raised to 15 percent.
Now beers like Hell’s Belle, a Belgian ale of 7 percent from the Raleigh-based microbrewery Big Boss, can be sold right alongside the mediocre watered-down brews from the corporate giants.
But many bizarrely useless rules are still on the books, making it harder for bars to do business. Besides the ban on happy hour, N.C. bars may have neither “Ladies Night” nor “buy one, get one free” specials.
They can’t advertise drink specials on white boards outside the bar, nor can they offer coupons for drinks. Bartenders aren’t even allowed to wear T-shirts featuring alcohol brands.
It’s a sad state of affairs when Washington, D.C., a city infamous for government meddling, has less strict alcohol laws than North Carolina.
In this rough economy, there’s no reason to impose senseless costs on any business or its patrons.
For the sake of every working individual and poor college student, it’s time for North Carolina to free the bars.
Tom Vananterp is a senior business major from Gastonia. Contact Tom at vananterp@gmail.com.
