What Life Was Like At 4 A.M.–State Rep. Chris Rosario’s Call To Extend Alcohol Sale Hours In Bars

State Rep. Chris Rosario. How about some bourbon to go with the ribs, Mr. Deputy Speaker?

The booze brickbats are pouring into the legislative process, the duality of grocery and liquor stores leading the way.

Grocery stores, limited to selective beer sales, desire wine purchase for consumers; liquor stores assert don’t mess with our grape exclusivity. The positioning and regulation for adequate fluid ounces will be debated the next several months during the legislative session.

Bridgeport State Rep. Chris Rosario has his own take in the form of a bill: a pilot program in Bridgeport and eight other municipalities extending alcohol sales in bars to 4 a.m. matching neighbors New York and Massachusetts.

Governor Ned Lamont and House Speaker Matt Ritter, both of whom tuck in before 11 p.m. are not sold on the idea citing a spike in accidents and extra burden on law enforcement. Rosario counters you have those same issues at 1 and 2 a.m., Connecticut’s closing hours depending on the day.

Rosario adds that restaurants and bars have been knocked for a loop by the health pandemic. In addition some Connecticut residents cross state lines to tip tequila in advance of the sunrise.

Rosario tells the Hartford Courant’s Christopher Keating:

“If a local government, a local mayor, and city council decide they want to allow later closings in their jurisdiction, they should be able to. Just like our tribal casinos, urban centers near hotels, convention centers, ballparks, and stadiums. Let’s create entertainment zones in Connecticut where the industry can thrive.”

Sol’s cafe, and a bunch of scribes, circa 1980. I’m the grinned burnout sitting far left.

Back in the day, more than forty years ago, those of us who worked the night shift at The Telegram, the morning predecessor to the Connecticut Post, traversed Downtown’s midnight darkness a few blocks to Sol’s Cafe on Fairfield Avenue. On any given night there could be a few of us or a few dozen.

The shift I initially worked was 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. then segued to 4 to midnight. As working journalists we had a pretty good scam going with the genial owner of Sol’s Cafe, Solomon Roth. Weeknights, although the bars were supposed to be shut down, he kept the joint open for us cash-paying, liquor-law violators.

The cops didn’t bother us. And if they did who was gonna write about it? I had a full-time newsroom job when I was 18 years ago. Sol’s became my favorite place to hang out, especially on the job. The best tips and stories flooded the bar at Sol’s. All I had to do was listen.

Back then some of the industry giants such as Carpenter Steel still hummed. Every Thursday night Sol had an arrangement with the steel workers. They came to the bar with paychecks, they signed them, he cashed them. In exchange he’d keep the change reflected on the check. Sol had tens of thousands of dollars on hand Thursday nights. Many stayed and drank heartily. He packed a revolver, just in case.

We drank, we ate, we laughed, barbed each other after hours. Journalists love their petty torments. We left when we wanted. Could be 4 a.m. No one really kept track of time.

Drunk driving laws then? Forget about it.

Still living home, my mother The Dragon Lady, did have one rule: don’t even think about darkening my door after daybreak. If she saw me and the light at the same time, that was it. And if she saw the light without seeing me, when I arrived home the leftover pasta fagioli slammed right in the kisser.

Back to Rosario’s bill, it probably doesn’t go far this session but if 4 a.m. eventually beckons, you gotta start somewhere.

“Everybody, five years ago, was very cool to cannabis,” Rosario said, noting that the legislature later legalized recreational marijuana that was signed into law by Lamont. “Whenever there’s something new, whenever there’s change, they’re cool to it. Right now, you can go and I can to a dispensary and get cannabis. Never say never.”

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9 comments

  1. I like it. 🤣

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHAOnaoUuUg

    Though, the Gov. has a point.

    Being in the middle of the road kind of guy. You can achieve both. In fact, an attempt to lower the rate of alcoholic accidents. While alcohol is essential it’s not about alcohol, per se.

    The bill should be allowing bars to sell alcohol till 3 PM, but allow them to stay open until 4 PM. It is the best of both worlds. The bar gets to say open longer while drawing/selling alcoholic beverages, and an extra hour for patrons to enjoy their night out while sobering them up by not forcing them into their cars and selling nonalcoholic beverages. You can be strict about it by forcing bars you violate the one-hour “sober” period by making those entities who are caught to close their bar at 2 PM (for a period) JS

    I mean if you are not feeling good, being where you want to be, tippy wise you might want to evaluate why you really out. 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GBuciv20A

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  2. Bridgeport State Rep. Chris Rosario has his own take in the form of a bill: a pilot program in Bridgeport and eight other municipalities extending alcohol sales in bars to 4 a.m. matching neighbors New York and Massachusetts.

    “Governor Ned Lamont and House Speaker Matt Ritter, both of whom tuck in before 11 p.m. are not sold on the idea citing a spike in accidents and extra burden on law enforcement. Rosario counters you have those same issues at 1 and 2 a.m., Connecticut’s closing hours depending on the day.

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  3. It’s 10 pm. It’s been a long time since I’ve do the four finger OIB smack down. Here it come: If Only Governor Ned Lamont, House Speaker Matt Ritter and the entire House and Senate could see that where the hours need to be extended is in our schools, health and dental clinics, libraries, etc.

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  4. Really… With Bridgeport being in the midst of a public safety crisis, education crisis, business-retention crisis, and general socioeconomic crisis, and being the largest city in a state that has managed to hemorrhage jobs and population even as our neighbors experience explosive population and economic growth, any conscious constituent would be expected to look to their GA delegation to raise serious bills that would address serious socioeconomic issues and bring serious money and jobs to their city and state. Spending legislative time and capital for the purpose of saturating Bridgeport with more opportunities for intoxication and lethal — and otherwise stupid — behavior is not what we should expect from our state GA and City leadership. Bar and restaurant owners already have a difficult time with staffing and are barely able to keep full-time operations going. How will longer hours of sale of alcohol help Bridgeport and its bars/restaurants/businesses?! Just who is this bill designed to help?! Who is paying whom to waste time on this bill in the GA?!

    Instead of trying to remake Bridgeport into New Orleans, we should be trying to remake it into BRIDGEPORT — a place where things are invented, financed, manufactured, and shipped from Bridgeport-based facilities by a well-paid workforce that sends its children to excellent schools from prosperous, well-run households located in safe neighborhoods…

    How about working on legislation to address our extortionate utility-supply system that is wrecking our state economy and the finances of its households… Maybe pass a bill that prohibits any sort of economic relationship between elected and appointed state officials and the utilities. (E.g., just to address the tip of the iceberg, the Governor and his appointees, and their first-degree relatives, should not be allowed to own any utility stock or otherwise have any sort of financial/employment relationship with any utility for two years prior, during, or two years following service in office for the State of Connecticut…)

    Really!! Wasting legislative time to promote exacerbation of societal ills! Shame!

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