The North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association congratulates the municipalities across the state who have adopted a “Brunch Bill” ordinance during the last week. Gov. Roy Cooper signed S.B. 155 into law June 30, sparking instantaneous, positive response by 17 North Carolina cities and counties.
Areas that have implemented a local ordinance include: Atlantic Beach, Bald Head, Banner Elk, Beaufort, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hendersonville, Huntersville, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Raleigh, Southern Shores, Surf City, Troutman and Wrightsville Beach. Hyde and Mecklenburg are the only counties to approve an ordinance, thus far. Several other local governments are slated to discuss the adoption of the ordinance soon.
Restaurants and hotels in these communities now have the option to partake in alcohol sales beginning at 10 a.m., on Sundays, allowing those businesses to better serve their guests.
“North Carolina offers 18,000 restaurants and 1,800 hotels. We are excited nearly 20 municipalities have already taken action to allow some of those 20,000 businesses to serve alcoholic beverages on Sunday mornings. As communities across the state give consideration to this issue, we want to do all we can to assist the governmental process, in turn, better serving those visiting our great state,” said NCRLA President and CEO Lynn Minges.
To help local governments with the adoption process, NCRLA recently released city and county model Brunch Bill ordinances, as well as a model resolution. These drafts are available on the www.ncbrunchbill.com website. To view a current list of local government Brunch Bill adoptions and tentative discussion dates, click here.
“We expect more local action to take place in the coming weeks,” said Minges. “It is important to remember the adoption of the Brunch Bill is a process, one many communities will allocate time to contemplate. Though this legislation has many benefits, immediate action may not be the outcome everywhere across North Carolina.”
