First Sunday liquor sales in Grandville

GRANDVILLE, Mich. -- It was the first Sunday for hard liquor sales in the city of Grandville.

After a vote by city council on July 14,  Restaurants and bars planned to cash in and are hoping to have a level playing field in competition with other establishments in surrounding cities.

Restaurants and bars in Grandville had argued they had an unfair disadvantage because they were not allowed to sell liquor on Sundays, only beer and wine.

"We are calling it Sunday Funday, because we are selling liquor for the first time," said Uccello's Grandvillemanager Tinneil Dodge.

At Uccello's, weekends are typically filled with sports fans enjoying games on the restaurant's giant screens, but for the first time this Sunday the contents of the bottles on the top shelf are pouring into glasses.

"We flipped out and got really excited when we got the email saying that Grandville has changed their law, so it's pretty awesome," said Dodge.

For customer Debra Murray, she's happy to sip on a Bloody Mary after the change to a law she calls outdated. "It's stupid, to be honest," she said. "I mean, you know, come on. It's your choice if you want to have a drink or not."

Dodge said that before Sunday, nearby establishments outside Grandville had an unfair advantage. "We have Wyoming just a couple minutes down the road, and they sell liquor there,, so we've always felt kind of shafted, because we know people go there. And then we will have people usually every Sunday come in and ask for a Bloody Mary or whiskey and Coke, something like that, and we have to tell them, 'No,'  they get upset. So it's really nice we are not going to upset anyone anymore."

Not everyone was ready for liquor sales on Sunday. The Party Store in Granville said it had to apply for a Sunday liquor sales license, and it is still waiting on it to arrive in the mail.

"It's going to be so awesome once the liquor license actually comes in," said worker Garion Zutliff. "It's just going to be so busy here because we are in Grandville. We are just down the street from River Town mall."

Zutliff said that he hopes to receive their Sunday liquor license any day, and expects business to be booming as soon as it arrives.

"Liquor is liquor, alcohol is alcohol regardless. You are still going to get the same effect.  Sometimes you have to consume twice as much, but this is just saving the people of Granville money by, you know, saying you can buy what you want when you want."

When the vote passed, we spoke with city council member Andy Richter, who voted in favor of the new ordinance. Richter said whether you drink or don't, it's up to your personal convictions.


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