It’s been a little more than a year since Tuscaloosa residents voted to legalize Sunday alcohol sales, and University of Alabama students and Tuscaloosa businesses still view it as a positive, but not monumental, change.
“It’s definitely been a positive,” Buffalo Phil’s manager Craig Williams said of Sunday drink sales. “It’s not party central around here, of course, but it’s definitely nice that people now have that choice to order a drink or two if they want.”
Before the vote last February, Tuscaloosa was the largest city in the state to prohibit Sunday alcohol sales.
More than 11,000 Tuscaloosa residents came out to vote, passing the referendum with 8,873 votes to 2,504 against.
Adrian Garcia, a UA senior, supported the vote a year ago.
“There were instances where I wanted to order a drink at the restaurant and had been denied,” Garcia said. “It was an inconvenience and annoying.”
Garcia hails from Winfield, Ala., a “dry” town an hour northwest of Tuscaloosa that still prohibits alcohol sales of any kind, and said he understands why the vote was such a hot topic a year ago.
“For the most part, it is mostly set in tradition,” he said. “Tuscaloosa may be a college town, but there are also families that live here outside that world. Traditions or even notions of tradition are hard to break.”
Businesses like Buffalo Phil’s are glad those traditions were broken, though, as Williams said the restaurant has seen large sales increases during major events like NFL and Super Bowl Sundays.
Overall, though, Williams said the vote made only slight changes to the normal crowd.
“On Sundays, we were always open anyways, unlike some of the bars,” he said. “It’s definitely turned some of our water drinkers into beer drinkers. Plus, it’s a positive that a lot of people won’t just get the one beer, they’ll order a couple of extra.”
Net Mengumpun, general manager at Surin of Thailand, said the additional day of sales hasn’t affected the restaurant greatly.
“Students come in Sunday nights for takeout — they want to get a quick meal and get back to studying,” Mengumpun said. “It’s helped our business, because we are part martini bar — but Sunday is still the lowest for the week in alcohol sales.
On the student end, Garcia said he didn’t see Sunday sales affecting the typical weekend night, Thursday through Saturday traditions.
However, he does feel that students are taking advantage of the change in different ways.
“I do see a lot of people, especially younger, who go to Sunday brunch,” Garcia said. “It’s become a thing in Tuscaloosa to go to FIVE or Chuck’s and enjoy some food and a Bloody Mary.”
And with the weather warming up, Williams said people always like to take advantage of their extra day off with drinks on the patio.
“We do have happy hour on Sundays from 3 to 6 p.m., and we do run some drink specials,” Williams said of their amended menu. “I think as it gets warm outside and people start taking advantage of those days, we’ll have more specials to entice customers.”
UA junior Kimberly Peden agreed with Williams.
“It’s not like our alcohol sales have risen tremendously, but I have found that people seem to appreciate being able to have a drink when they go out to lunch or dinner on Sundays,” she said. “Especially those that work hard all week and want to have a drink or two on the last day of their weekend.”
