California Today: What a 4 A.M. Closing Time Would Mean for Bars

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/us/california-today-4-am-closing-time-legislation.html

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Good morning.

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This week, I talked with Scott Wiener, a state senator from San Francisco, about his second attempt at getting a sweeping, divisive housing bill through the Legislature.

But that’s not the only bill he’s resurrecting. For the third year in a row, Mr. Wiener is trying to put off closing time with legislation that would let cities decide whether to allow bars, clubs and restaurants to keep selling alcohol until 4 a.m.

“We’re at a disadvantage here,” he told me, adding that visitors from other states are “shocked when, at 1:30, the bartender announces last call.”

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown disagreed.

While businesses and cities have supported the move, since it could boost revenue, Mr. Brown sided with law enforcement officials who were concerned about drunken driving and other problems.

“I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem,” he wrote in his note explaining his veto of the bill, S.B. 905.

So how big a difference could those extra two hours actually make?

I asked Michael Valladares, who, along with his partner, owns the Hotsy Totsy Club in Albany, a neighborhood haunt with a long history and a killer cocktail menu.

“I think it’s an interesting idea because obviously bars are so drastically different,” he said. “If you’re a big, 500-seat club in San Francisco, that’s a lot of revenue.”

Hotsy, on the other hand, he views as a “a place to be, not a place to party.”

So a couple of extra hours a night wouldn’t be gangbusters for his bottom line, but it wouldn’t hurt, either.

“If our nut to stay open is like $30 an hour, it doesn’t take much,” to make money, Mr. Valladares explained. “We’re selling $10 to $12 cocktails, not $3 beers.”

And the taco truck in the yard might be able to pick up a little more business.

Plus, his bar’s clientele and bartenders skew older than other places in the area that are popular with Berkeley students. As a result, he doesn’t have to worry about dealing with young, rowdy drinkers and staffers without the experience to know when to cut people off.

For the bars that do, Mr. Valladares said, “I think the extra two hours would be a nightmare.”

Ultimately, though, he said he supported letting locals make their own decisions.

“The American saloon has always been the kind of democratic center of any city,” he said. “It’s a place for the community.”

(A note: We often link to content on sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times stories, but we’d also encourage you to support local news if you can.)

• President Trump torpedoed a spending deal on Thursday and sent the government careening toward a Christmastime shutdown over his demand of $5 billion for a wall on the southwestern border. [The New York Times]

• Mayor London Breed of San Francisco stood by her decision to ask Gov. Jerry Brown to free her imprisoned brother in a letter. Experts said that the letter did not appear to violate any ethics laws, but that she should have avoided using the word “mayor.” [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• Which cities are people leaving, and where are they going? Turns out the top destination for people leaving San Francisco is Sacramento. For L.A., it’s Vegas. [The New York Times]

• Also, which cities have the worst commutes? (New York’s is actually worse than L.A.’s. — sort of.) [The New York Times]

• When migrants seeking asylum arrive in California, housing costs are pushing them away from the areas where they can find the most help. [KPCC]

• Berkeley’s police department is struggling to rebuild after hemorrhaging officers. Many who left complained about low morale and poor management. [Berkeleyside]

• Will Elon Musk’s tunnels under L.A. actually fix traffic? Some experts say a car in a tunnel is still a car, and cars are the problem. [The Los Angeles Times]

• A mysterious object that streaked across the California sky on Wednesday night was most likely a meteor. [The Sacramento Bee]

• “This isn’t cute but the otter is.” The Monterey Bay Aquarium apologized after posting a tweet about a “thicc” otter named Abby that some said appropriated African-American slang. [The Sacramento Bee]

• Kendrick Lamar talks about making the “Black Panther” soundtrack and working with another artist who works to represent his hometown, Ryan Coogler. [The Los Angeles Times]

• LeBron James didn’t become a Laker until July, but he’s been low-key turning La La Land into Bron Bron Land for years. Take an interactive tour. [ESPN]

As a programming note, this is our last newsletter until after Christmas. We hope you have a relaxing and happy holiday. Now, here’s Tejal Rao, our California restaurant critic, with a recommendation:

It’s the week before Christmas: I’ve already started curing duck for confit and kicked off a few other kitchen tasks to stay on top of cooking for family. Naturally, I’ve got New Year resolutions on my mind. In 2019, I want to make every single day better in small, meaningful ways, and here’s one: I plan to incorporate an aperitif, shared with my partner and our friends, into my daily routine.

It doesn’t have to be fussy at all — just a casual cocktail hour, set to the tune of a nice glass of wine or a low-alcohol cocktail and some pre-dinner snacks. My guide, in this delicious journey, is the author Rebekah Peppler, an American writer and food stylist living in Paris, whose beautiful book “Apéritif: Cocktail Hour the French Way” came out this past October.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is written by Jill Cowan and edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.