When you choose to go to brunch on Sundays, do you time your arrival at noon in so that you can order a Bloody Mary? If you get to the restaurant any earlier, it is illegal for your sever or bartender to make you a drink. The reason? Buffalo is still governed by antiquated prohibition-driven Blue Laws that require sales of alcoholic beverages to begin no earlier than noon on Sundays. Brunch is one thing. Then there’s the Sunday Bills’ games. Same thing applies of course.
Now, there is a movement that would skim one hour away from the Sunday regulations. Assemblyman Sean Ryan is sponsoring an action that would allow Ralph Wilson Stadium to begin selling beer at 11am, instead of noon. Ryan is also co-sponsoring legislation by Assemblymember Benedetto that would apply the same measure to restaurants across NY State. These steps would be initial moves to ease up on the Blue Laws. Hopefully this is also a step towards eliminating them completely, thus generating more business for Buffalo.
“Allowing beer sales to begin at 11am at Ralph Wilson Stadium is one way to begin to address New York’s antiquated blue laws,” states Ryan. “In addition to sponsoring legislation to change beer sales at the Ralph, I will also be co-sponsoring legislation by Assemblymember Benedetto which would allow for alcohol sales to begin at 11am on Sundays for establishments across New York State. These are common sense changes which will reform prohibition-era laws that are a hindrance to both the Buffalo Bills and local bars and restaurants.”