Atlanta's nightlife might soon pulse a little longer into the night, with proposed legislation offering bar hounds the chance to sip and socialize past the current cutoff. The new bill, sponsored by Atlanta City Councilmember Keisha Waites, suggests extending the city's "last call" for alcohol service — possibly granting night owls up to an additional half hour from Monday to Saturday and a more generous two and a half hours on Sundays, according to 11Alive.
Reeling from the pandemic's economic sucker punch, bar and restaurant owners began lodging calls to Waites about eight months ago voicing their struggles to rebound and the idea of extending pouring hours began to percolate, Waites said, echoing the confluence of financial distress and the push for more flexible booze hours, the councilwoman draws the line at 2:30 a.m. on certain holidays, staking the proposal on the grounds of fairness and a lifeline to battered businesses this pivot emerged during discussions at a city council meeting where Councilwoman Keisha Sean-Waites unveiled her proposal to keep the good times rolling later into the night on the eve of some federal holidays, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta.
Waites initially aimed to push the last call to 4 a.m. but dialed it back to 3 a.m., aligning with nearby DeKalb County after digesting community feedback on safety, and as fate would have it, hopes to see the changes take effect by New Year’s Eve. Friday night patrons at Fado Irish Pub in Buckhead weighed in, with customer Jennifer Elkins lauding the potential for a livelier city nightlife while David Elkins cautioned that responsibility should remain on the shoulders of bar staff to manage their patrons judiciously, as 11Alive highlighted.
Fiscal benefits also feature in Waites' pitch for pushing back last call, projecting increased liquor license fees from $5,000 to $7,500 to bolster the city's coffers and ostensibly fund public safety perks like police take-home vehicles and a surveillance camera uptick in crime hotspots but the proposal mirrors a two-month-prior attempt by Sean-Waites facing residential standoffs over concerns that longer pour times could lead to a spike in DUI incidents, nevertheless the bill awaits deliberation at an upcoming Atlanta Public Safety Committee meeting, as per details from FOX 5 Atlanta.
