Interest in later bar hours still low
Published 12:00 am Monday, August 4, 2003
A month after it became legal for bars in Minnesota to obtain permits to stay open an extra hour until 2 a.m., state officials say applications are running well below expectations.
&uot;We expected thousands of applications,&uot; said Frank Ball of the state Department of Public Safety’s alcohol and gambling enforcement division.
By the end of July, however, the state had approved only 388 licenses. Ball estimated there may be as many as 11,000 liquor licenses in the state.
&uot;Minnesota is conservative in these matters,&uot; he said. &uot;I don’t think the ‘Ma and Pa’ places will stay open late, but the places that do convention business will.&uot;
In Albert Lea, which passed a local ordinance allowing the later closing time, two bars have applied for permits to stay open until 2 a.m., said City Clerk Sandi Behrens. They are the Aragon and the Nasty Habit.
In St. Paul, where the city’s later bar closing time takes effect Wednesday, only 50 bars had applied for extra-hour licenses and about half had been granted. Some of those bars plan to stay open later only on the busiest nights &045; Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Minneapolis, which approved the later time a month ago, has 179 special licenses among its 475 bars.
In some non-metro areas, the varied last calls are causing confusion.
Jeff &uot;Kozzie&uot; Kosloske doesn’t understand why he may not be allowed to keep Kozzie’s Lakeside Club in Eden Lake Township bar open a little later on Halloween and New Year’s Eve and a few other times during the year. Kosloske has applied for a 2 a.m. permit, but Stearns County commissioners may go with a 1 a.m. closing time.
Kosloske notes that bars in the nearby cities of Cold Spring and Watkins have the option of closing later.