Starkville aldermen have reset the public hearing process on whether to exempt brewpubs that make and sell craft beer and wine on-site from food sale requirements.
If passed, the new change would apply citywide, not just in the Leisure and Entertainment District that includes downtown and the Cotton District.
Aldermen held an initial hearing Jan. 19 on whether to exempt brewpubs in the city’s Leisure and Entertainment District from a city ordinance requiring any establishment serving alcoholic beverages to have food account for at least 25 percent of its gross sales. The board was set for a second hearing on that change Tuesday, followed by a vote. But in a work session Friday, aldermen decided to deem Tuesday’s hearing a “first hearing” on a new draft, since the amendment had “substantially changed” from its first version.
That pushes the second hearing to Feb. 16, the earliest the board will consider a vote on the change. As a custom, aldermen hold two hearings for any proposed ordinance change.
The crux of the change would simply apply state law to what constitutes a brewpub and what those businesses can do. Starkville’s current ordinance mandates that any establishment selling alcohol also meet the 25-percent food sale requirement, and that includes those selling beer, light wine and light spirits.
State law, however, governs beer (up to 8 percent alcohol by weight), light wine (5 percent alcohol by weight) and light spirits (up to 4 percent alcohol by weight) separately from “alcoholic beverages” and doesn’t require food sales for serving those at brewpubs. Further, it defines “brewpubs” as an establishment that makes and sells those items on-site but that cannot manufacture more than 75,000 gallons per year.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said aligning city ordinance with state law, rather than making exceptions just for the Entertainment and Leisure District, is a better deal for the city.
“That way it doesn’t look like we’re being arbitrary and capricious,” she told The Dispatch.
Spring Street Cigars
The most immediate beneficiary for the rule change would be John Higgins, owner of Tupelo-based Spring Street Cigars, who wants to bring a cigar lounge and brewpub to the old Mugshots restaurant building on Main Street, which sits in the Leisure and Entertainment District.
Aldermen have already granted Higgins an exception to the city’s anti-smoking ordinance, which generally disallows smoking in public spaces in the city limits, and Higgins told The Dispatch he needs the brewpub exception to fully engage the two-story facility. He plans to house the cigar lounge upstairs and the brewpub on the ground floor.
None of Higgins’ other four locations in Mississippi include brewpubs, but he said he would need one at the former Mugshots. If aldermen shoot down his proposed brewpub, he said he would have to look elsewhere in the city to put his cigar lounge.
“The viability isn’t there for just a cigar store and lounge,” Higgins said. “The space is too big.
“Starkville is definitely on our list for a cigar store and lounge,” he added. “So if we can’t have a brewpub, we would definitely look for an alternative location in Starkville. … The city has been tremendously supportive through this process so far.”
The anti-smoking ordinance exception only applies to the Leisure and Entertainment District, though, meaning a cigar lounge cannot locate outside those boundaries — a restriction Spruill and the aldermen all said is meant to keep smoking from creeping back into the city’s public spaces.
Further, Spruill addressed concerns that the brewpub change, as it is written, or anti-smoking change, as it was passed, would create a slippery slope where bars could operate without selling food or restaurants could start allowing smoking.
Even with both changes, an establishment that allows smoking could not sell food, she said, meaning a cigar lounge could have a brewpub and a brewpub could sell food, but no business could do all three.
The other concern, which came up briefly at Friday’s work session, is potentially creating “honky-tonks” — smoke-filled bars with no food for sale.
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty, who told The Dispatch he supports allowing brewpubs, under the state definition, to operate throughout the city, said he’s not worried about those establishments becoming something the ordinance change does not intend.
“I think it’s a good fit,” Beatty said. “People don’t go to places like (brewpubs) to get plowed. These are craft beers we’re talking about. People go there because they enjoy the taste of it.”
Aldermen support the change
Beatty is not alone in supporting the change. Four other aldermen The Dispatch spoke with over the weekend — Ben Carver of Ward 1, Sandra Sistrunk of Ward 2, David Little of Ward 3 and Jason Walker of Ward 4 — all signaled they would likely vote for the new version of the brewpub ordinance in two weeks.
Neither Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins nor Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn, whose ward includes part of downtown, responded to The Dispatch’s requests for comment.
For Carver and Little, the focus is on revitalizing a prominent downtown building that has been vacant for a couple of years.
“This may be our only shot to get somebody in there for a few more years,” Carver said.
“I think this will be developed in a nice manner,” said Little, referring to Spring Street Cigars’ plans for the old Mugshots. “I don’t have a lot of hangups about it. … If we don’t get that development there, the alternative is probably some type of office space, which doesn’t generate as much sales tax revenue or evening traffic.”
Still, Sistrunk is concerned about ordinance changes setting the city up for future unintended consequences — or the board one day consenting to more exceptions than it is now.
She said she has already fielded a request from a hookah lounge to locate outside the Leisure and Entertainment District, which is not currently allowed. So whatever action the board takes, she said, needs to be crystal clear.
“Do we want to expand the anti-smoking ordinance and really open up a can of worms?” Sistrunk said. “As we do this, we really, as a board, need to take a good look at what exactly we want and don’t want.”
Likewise, Walker said he is adamant that businesses selling alcohol can’t find a way to use the brewpub rule to skirt selling food.
“I think we need to be very clear on maintaining the 25-percent food sale rule (for restaurants and bars, etc.) and not turn a blind eye,” he said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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