Several Minnesota towns vote to lift Sunday restrictions on bars

Minnesota voters opened up the taps in several small towns, where it's newly legal for bars to open on Sundays.

Sunday sales are a fraught topic in Minnesota. Most communities do allow bars and restaurants to pour patrons a drink any day of the week, but it's still illegal for liquor stores to open their doors. Only some communities extend the ban to bars as well — and that number is even smaller after this past election.

More than half a dozen small towns have voted to do away with Sunday sales prohibitions. One of them was the west-central community of Maynard, home to 350 people and one bar: Moldy's.

The Sunday ban has been on the books "forever," said bar owner Darrell Molden, and many Maynard residents saw no reason to change the tradition. Proposals to lift the ban had been on the ballot in two of the past four elections, and twice the voters struck them down.

The third time was a charm for Molden, who might not want to open every Sunday, but wanted "the option to be open on football days, and NASCAR and special events."

So this year, Molden decided to get out the vote for Sunday sales.

"I kind of went after it a little more; advertised," Molden said. "I'm trying to keep up with the other towns around here, that's all."

On Nov. 4, the measure passed by an 18-vote margin, 87 to 69.

In the southwestern city of Butterfield, Sunday sales passed by a single vote — 89 to 88. In Frost, population 198, residents voted 50 to 36 in favor of lifting the ban.

On the Iron Range, the two bars that serve the town of Buhl will be able to serve beer to the patrons who come in to watch the Sunday football game. Sunday sales referendums also passed in Gibbon, Grove City, Regal, Watson and Canby.

Despite the Sunday sweep for the restaurants and bars, attempts to open liquor stores on Sunday have not fared as well at the State Legislature. Every year, lawmakers propose lifting the ban, and every year, the proposal is either shelved in committee or crushed in a floor vote.

This year, a repeal proposal made it as far as the Senate floor, where it was rejected by a bipartisan vote of 42-22. The year before, the Minnesota House voted down a Sunday sales amendment by a resounding 106-21.

Undaunted, supporters like the Minnesota Beer Activists are gearing up to push the issue again this year, organizing at sites like www.sundaysalesmn.org.

The main difference between the liquor stores and the bars is that many liquor store owners staunchly oppose the idea of opening on Sunday — a move they say would simply create more work for small mom and pop stores without bringing in more sales.

But many bar and restaurant owners welcomed the end to the local bans, fearing they were losing business as patrons drove to other towns where they could find a sports bar that would serve them a beer.

It may take the City Council a few weeks for the Maynard City Council to revise the Sunday sales ordinance, Molden said. But he hopes to open his doors on the first Sunday in January.

"I just want to thank everyone who voted for it," he said. "And hope to see them on Sundays in the future."

Jennifer Brooks • 612-673-4008