Savannah Restaurants: It's Morphin' Time!

By: Barbara Herring | WSAV-TV
Published: June 19, 2008

Restaurant that want to stop serving food and just serve booze for part of their operation can do so under a new law passed today by Savannah City Council.

It is still illegal for Full-Service Restaurants to close their kitchens and just serve alcohol. It is still illegal for Bars to allow those under the age of 21 inside their establishments at all.
Now, thanks to a new law, a business can be a Restaurant with all age access and then morph into a Bar that only serves booze and is only open to those old enough to drink legally.

The so-called Hybrid License approved today allows Restaurant owners to pick a time to morph from Restaurant to Bar. It requires that underage patrons be booted before that time and requires higher fees that will pay for more intense code enforcement from the city.

Not every Restaurant that serves alcohol would want a Hybrid License. Only those that want to close their kitchen and start serving only alcohol or if they want to move the tables and chairs around and bring in a larger crowd than would be normal for restaurant operations, basically, anything that changes the regular food service into something else would require the hybrid license.

The Hybrid License was created after leaders noticed some downtown bars were closing their kitchens, staging concerts, serving alcohol and continuing to admit those under 21. Such bar-like behavior is not allowed under the current law but rather than enforce the rules, the city decided to adjust the law to allow the transition from full-service restaurant to bar so long as all those under 21 are first removed from the premises.

Savannah Restaurants: It's Morphin' Time!

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