Liquor laws in Massachusetts are complicated. Will these bills simplify them?

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With the start of summer comes the season of outdoor dining and oysters paired with crisp white wine — but in Massachusetts, controversial laws regulate alcohol discounts and liquor licensing. Some legislators want to change that.

Happy hour is banned in Massachusetts. In most states, restaurants and bars can draw business with discounted drinks in their quiet late-afternoon weekday hours. But in Massachusetts, drink specials specific to certain days and times aren’t legal.

And the state’s policy on liquor licenses, which dates back to just after Prohibition, limits the number each town can have by population. 

The state Legislature is considering measures that would change both laws. But local businesses seem split on whether this would help or hurt. 

Most cities and towns in Massachusetts have a state-imposed quota telling them how many “on-premise” liquor licenses they can have. These licenses allow a restaurant or bar to serve alcohol, like the glass of wine you might want with your fish. 

When a town reaches its quota of liquor licenses and wants more, it has to go through the home rule petition process: after getting approval from the town authorities, it must get a legislator to introduce a bill for more licenses, which then has to pass the Legislature. 

This system has been widely criticized for causing unnecessary delays. In some cities that max out their quota, it has created a private market, where liquor licenses sell for much more than they cost when available from the city government. 

In late May, the Senate adopted an amendment to its budget which would eliminate the Legislature’s role in approving new liquor licenses, leaving that power to cities and towns and oversight to the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.  

Currently, New Bedford is three on-premise licenses away from reaching its quota. Nearby Fairhaven is at quota. 

In July 2024, former Rep. Bill Straus introduced a bill for one more on-premise license for Fairhaven, which Gov. Maura Healey signed in January of this year, so the process took just under six months. In 2019, a bill for a new license in Fairhaven passed in five months, and in 2013, one passed in under two months. None of these timelines are particularly slow for the state Legislature.

Ali DiMatteo, a legislative analyst for the Massachusetts Municipal Association, says this step shouldn’t be necessary — these bills hardly ever face any opposition, and just slow the process down. In the last five years, the Legislature has approved more than 80 home rule petitions for liquor licenses, creating over 265 licenses across Massachusetts, DiMatteo said. (That’s not counting a petition from Boston that led to 225 new licenses there.)

Rep. Mark Sylvia, D-Fairhaven, supports the Senate amendment. He said he’s seen the liquor license process firsthand as a town manager and knows it’s long and frustrating. He feels that power over licenses is more appropriately placed at the local level.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell also supports the Senate amendment. 

“The existing process in which new licenses require approval of the state legislature is invariably time-consuming and inefficient, and occasionally arbitrary,” Mitchell wrote in a statement to The Light. “Local control would afford small businesses a more-reliable means to secure a license in a timely way.”

In 2014, the city filed a home rule petition to give New Bedford 25 more liquor licenses, but the bill never made it through the Legislature. 

New Bedford’s Rep. Antonio F. D. Cabral, who worked on the bill, said it never passed because of “differences between the House and the Senate on how to proceed in terms of more than one license.”

“If it’s just one license, it’s a humble petition, it becomes easier to get it through both chambers,” Cabral said. “If it goes beyond that and becomes a little more, it might get tangled up.”

Rep. Joseph McKenna, R-Sutton, has spent 10 years on the Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, which inspired him to begin introducing a similar bill to the Senate amendment. McKenna said the committee spends a significant amount of time dealing with local liquor license bills.

“I don’t know that it justifies the amount of time spent on it,” McKenna said. “On the local side of things … The liquor license [process] can oftentimes slow that development, slow that economic activity, and it takes a significant amount of time to go through the legislative process in order to get additional licenses.”

McKenna has introduced his bill in four previous sessions. But he said this year feels different. In addition to the Senate budget amendment, the House adopted an amendment that would give cities and towns the power to transfer existing beer and wine licenses into all-alcohol licenses. This, he said, signifies “a willingness to return some of that lawmaking power and authority to the municipalities.” 

But both the Senate budget amendment and House bill still seem set up to receive resistance in the House.

Rep. Tackey Chan, D-Quincy, who chairs the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure committee, recently blocked Sen. Jake Oliveira from testifying virtually on his Senate version of the bill. Chan has received almost $125,000 in campaign donations from the beer, wine and liquor industry from 2017, the year he became chair, through 2024, according to campaign finance data, which the nonprofit OpenSecrets tracks and publishes. 

Chan did not respond to four requests to comment by email, some of which mentioned his donation history, and two phone calls to his chief of staff.

House Majority Leader Michael Moran, who represents Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, opposes giving control of liquor-license quotas to cities. He has said liquor licenses can cause problems, and that it would be reckless for him to give up his community’s voice on whether or not they’re approved, according to The Boston Globe. Moran, in the same time period as Chan, received over $87,000 in donations from the beer, wine and liquor industry, according to data available on OpenSecrets. 

Moran did not respond to six emailed requests for comment, some of which mentioned his donation history. Moran also did not respond after The Light spoke over the phone to his office and left a message. 

What happens when a city runs out of liquor licenses?

When a city or town reaches its quota, licenses become extremely valuable and prices can skyrocket. If an older business wants to transfer its license to a new one, the state’s ABCC will make sure any license transfer is legal — meaning the new restaurant doesn’t have any automatic disqualifiers, like a felony conviction — but the payment for the license is a private business transaction. 

Today, one of New Bedford’s three available on-premises licenses would cost an applicant an annual fee of $3,050, paid to the city, according to Jonathan Darling, public information officer for the city. But when New Bedford has maxed out on its quota in the past, local restaurateurs have purchased a license for much more on the private market. 

Steve Silverstein, who owns two restaurants in Dartmouth, Sail Loft and Joe’s Original, said he’s never had to pay more than the standard fee for a license there. That’s because Dartmouth is one of 26 municipalities that don’t have a quota for on-premise licenses. But, he’d guess his New Bedford licenses, for restaurants including The Black Whale and Cisco Kitchen & Bar, are worth between $35,000 and $40,000.

Before the Legislature passed a bill authorizing 225 new on-premise licenses in Boston last year, a license on the private market could cost up to $600,000. These kinds of price jumps aren’t common outside of Boston, DiMatteo said, but the new Senate budget amendment would also eliminate liquor license transfers altogether. Instead, a business that’s giving up its license would return it to the municipality, which would then license it to a different restaurant. 

For existing restaurants, however, it’s a complicated issue. David Slutz, president and co-founder of New Bedford’s Moby Dick Brewing Company, and co-founder Bob Unger paid $50,000 for their liquor license in 2016, and it still resides on their balance sheet as an asset. 

“If you add licenses, the value of ours will go down,” Slutz wrote in an email to The Light. “Hardly fair to those who played by the rules back in the day.”

For Silverstein, whose Servedwell Hospitality owns six restaurants on the South Coast, it’s complicated. 

Silverstein thinks changing the law now could be devastating to restauranteurs — particularly those paying Boston prices — but that it’s the right thing overall. He said the current system creates barriers to entry and stifles innovation and competition.

“It’s too bad that this existed, but now that it exists, how do we treat everybody fairly?” Silverstein said. 

Cabral is also worried about existing businesses. He said that there’s no plan laid out for making sure a new system wouldn’t disadvantage those who bought their license for a high price. 

Since Slutz and Silverstein’s New Bedford licenses were purchased through private transactions, they would lose their value without a high demand for licenses, DiMatteo said. Because of this, she said, some cities have special legislation that prevents license transfers via private sales. 

Want a cheap beer with your $2 oyster? Once again, the state is split.

Massachusetts banned happy hour in 1984, after a tragic accident killed 20-year-old Kathleen Barry the night she and her friends won free pitchers of beer playing “Name That Tune.” 

Since then, happy hour drink deals have been a thing of the past. Instead, some restaurants, like New Bedford’s Quahog Republic Whaler’s Tavern and some of Silverstein’s restaurants, offer a different type of happy hour, discounting their raw bar rather than their liquor.

Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, wants to bring real happy hour back. He said times have changed, and he wants to give local businesses — and fun — a boost.

Eight states — Alaska, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont — prohibit happy hour promotions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, while 24 states and Washington, D.C., have restrictions on time, duration and pricing for happy hour promotions.

Before 1984, the drinking age was lower, seat belts were optional and ride share apps didn’t exist. In states like Illinois, which lifted a 1980s happy hour ban in 2015, reinstating happy hour had little to no impact on alcohol-related traffic deaths. 

But, as a senator for several dry communities, Cyr made sure his bill would allow cities and towns to choose whether they want happy hour bans in their towns. 

“I really appreciate that one size does not fit all,” Cyr said. He doesn’t want to force happy hour on towns that don’t want it, or allow discounts after 10 p.m. But, he thinks happy hour will “help provide local businesses who want to offer happy hour a boost, and bring a little more fun to a state that I think struggles with conviviality and night life options.” 

Cyr’s parents owned a restaurant, and he said he’s spent more years waiting tables and keeping bar than anything else he’s done in his life. As he sees it, happy hour would bring more business to downtowns, and allow restaurants to discount alcohol, which they have wider margins on than labor and food, the two biggest expenses for restaurants.

Massachusetts Restaurants United, an organization for locally and independently owned restaurants, supports the bill. However, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association does not.

Slutz, of Moby Dick Brewing, is concerned about drunk driving and doesn’t see a reason to change the system. He said if New Bedford were to legalize happy hour, Moby Dick would have to follow suit to stay competitive, but he said the restaurant would likely lose money. 

Silverstein feels differently. Having spent 30 years in the restaurant industry, Silverstein said he’d expect happy hour to improve his businesses by 10%.

“This is a low-profit industry, so all these incremental profits flow to the bottom line,” Silverstein said. “It would have a huge impact.”

Silverstein said people already drink when they come in for deals on oysters and appetizers, but that the profit margins are much higher for alcohol than for food. 

“Happy hour would be fantastic for my business,” Silverstein said. “[Happy hour] is a very slow time of day. I have a saying: the most expensive seat in the restaurant is the empty one.”

Silverstein understands concern over public safety, but believes you have to trust restaurateurs to serve alcohol responsibly, and hold them accountable if they’re not. But Cabral worries that not enough research has gone into the proposal — he’d like to see more evidence of how happy hour would impact businesses and public safety. 

Cyr said the Senate, which referred the bill to the committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, supports the idea. 

In 2022 and 2024, the Senate passed happy hour measures. Cyr said this is because happy hour would provide “meaningful benefit to our small businesses, for restaurants and bars, help people get back downtown and on Main Street, and address part of the fun problem Massachusetts has.”

Cyr petitioned for last session’s version alone, but his bill this year has a co-sponsor in Rep. Thomas W. Moakley, who represents Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket. In 2022, Boston College Law School students wrote a similar bill, which the Committee for Consumer Protection sent to study.

Still, the House has yet to agree to putting the bill into conference, so Cyr is “just going to keep at it until we can get it done.”

Still, Cyr said he’s perplexed by some of the opposition to the bill from “corporate players” in the industry, who he said don’t want the competition for their restaurant chains. 

“It’s not like the bill would force restaurants that they must provide happy hour,” he said. “It’s a tool that you can use.”

Abigial Pritchard is a summer intern with The New Bedford Light, as part of the South Coast Internship designed for local students.