Breweries & Bars

An early draft regulation raised concerns among business owners and patrons, but city officials said no changes have been adopted.

A draft overhaul of Cambridge’s alcohol licensing regulations is drawing pushback from mostly patrons and some local bar and restaurant owners, over a proposal requiring patrons to wait 30 minutes between alcoholic drinks.

The provision, included in an early draft of the revised regulations, quickly sparked questions about how it could be enforced, with one local business owner suggested bars would need egg timers on every table to keep track.

“It’s kind of wild and pretty confusing,” restaurateur Lauren Friel, who is the owner and wine director of the Dear Annie Bar in Cambridge, said in an Instagram post.

In response, Pammy’s, a restaurant in Cambridge wrote: “Timers are for kitchens. We’d close Pammy’s before ever setting one in the dining room.”

However, a City of Cambridge spokesperson said the License Commission has not made any changes or adopted any proposals, adding that it is in the early stages of gathering input. 

In January, the License Commission said it was updating the rules and regulations since there haven’t been any significant changes to state law and Cambridge rules in about 10 years. 

The License Commission is a three-person board comprising the License Commission Chair, the Fire Chief, and the Police Commissioner. 

A city spokesperson said that in April, the Commission created a redline version of the proposal based on input from staff, changes in state law, and what the Board “observed as issues.”

The proposed draft was published and shared individually with each license holder in May to gather feedback and capture diverse perspectives from the industry. 

There is no deadline for feedback, the spokesperson said. The Commission expects to hold meetings in August to discuss the proposals further, with a potential vote on the updated rules and regulations by December. 

But the proposed changes have customers concerned, especially around the changes to last call. 

According to the draft document, alcoholic drinks would not be allowed to be served 20 minutes before closing time, and shots and a bottle of wine could not be served up to one hour before closing time. In addition, drinks must be consumed 15 minutes after closing time, after which servers must discard them. 

“It’s a pretty intense update to me,” Friel said. 

Others agreed, with many saying this would be detrimental to small business owners, especially at a time when it seems like the city is loosening its rules. Just last week, the city approved a seasonal program allowing alcohol-to-go in seven designated public drinking districts. 

As one person commented on the post, it’s “Massachusetts’s Puritan roots coming out on full display.”