The hours downtown bar and restaurant patrons can roam the sidewalks chugging drinks would be expanded to a full 12 hours a day under a proposal before Toledo City Council.
Council next week will review a proposal to allow the outside drinking downtown from noon to midnight.
The current hours are 5 p.m. to 1 a.m Monday through Friday; noon to 1 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and noon to 1 a.m. for special events that fall on a weekday.
The 12-hour block, seven days a week is easier to work with, said Cindy Kerr, executive director of the Downtown Toledo Improvement District.
“That is easier to understand and it’s easier to train your wait staff,” Ms. Kerr said.
The city has two such areas.
Council created the downtown outdoor refreshment area last year. Several businesses downtown petitioned council to establish the area, bounded by Lafayette Street, Erie Street, Adams Avenue, and Summit Street, city records show. The area includes part of the Warehouse District.
The city’s first outdoor public-drinking area along Adams Street in the UpTown neighborhood was created in December, 2015.
The “outdoor refreshment areas” were made possible in May, 2015, when Ohio lawmakers crafted the designation and allowed cities to create the areas.
The state law allows cities with populations of more than 35,000 to set aside one entertainment district, or outdoor refreshment area, where people may legally walk outside with open containers of alcohol. Cities with more than 50,000 residents may set up two areas, and in larger cities, the districts could not be larger than half a square mile.
“The participating liquor permit premises in conjunction with the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Toledo Improvement District, and Destination Toledo requested the hours of operation to be modified,” said Mark Sobczak, Toledo’s chief of staff.
The downtown drinking outside area has not yet been used, Ms. Kerr said.
“We are working on the cups and once we get the cups they can start,” she said.
The hours for the Uptown area, which runs along Adams Street from 11th to 21st streets, are unchanged — the same as the current downtown hours.
Zach Lahey, owner of Manhattan’s, 1516 Adams St. and president of Village on Adams, said it has been great for the Uptown restaurants and bars.
“We have two schools in our area and we want to have a clear separation between school time and adult time,” he said. “We don’t want people walking up and down the street with drinks when the kids are getting out of school.”
Designated cups are not required but people must buy alcohol from participating businesses to walk the outside area drinking, Mr. Lahey said.
“Someone can be a jerk and not follow the rules by bringing their own drinks and that is kind or hard to regulate,” he said. “It has been problem-free and we have had higher alcohol sales.”
Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.
First Published May 6, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
