Local bars await legal decision on closing times

Enjoy the nightlife while you can.

Hanging over the Atlanta club scene like the Sword of Damocles (look it up — it could come up in team trivia) are several court rulings and prospective city ordinances that could bum out the party faster than your parents returning home in the middle of your next kegger.

By the time you read this, the Georgia Supreme Court is likely to be deliberating whether to restore the old Sunday "blue law." In early February, former Atlanta Council President-turned-Fulton Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington earned a lifetime open bar tab by throwing out the antiquated law that prohibited businesses from serving alcohol on Sunday unless at least half their revenue came from food sales.

Right now, Arrington's ruling applies only to Fulton County, but if it's upheld — and many local attorneys believe it will be — then expect bar owners in most other Georgia counties to open their doors on Sunday as well.

More threatening to fun-loving night owls, however, is the 2-year-old legal battle over the city's attempt to do away with after-hours clubs, such as Club 112 and the venerable Backstreet. Following a spate of violence at bars in early 2001, the City Council mandated that all nightclubs had to close at 4 a.m. (The 3 a.m. closing time on Saturday night is a state law.)

Although a federal judge allowed the after-hours clubs to remain open 24/7 while he considered their appeal, he recently ruled in the city's favor. Last week, Backstreet and the other clubs appealed the case to the 11th Circuit Court, but Atlanta's days of clubbing till dawn could be numbered.

In fact, Mayor Shirley Franklin and other city officials have made rumblings about cutting back on opening hours for all bars. Atlantans now enjoy some of the most liberal pouring laws of any city in the country. In New York and Los Angeles, for instance, closing time is 2 a.m. If you can't abide the Man telling you when you can drink, move to London, where a new law allows all bars to stay open all night.

Closing time isn't the only problem facing Backstreet, however. Last year, it and the Metro in Midtown were tagged by the city's License Review Board for alleged drug-related violations. Franklin ordered the clubs to pay a fine and shut down for 30 days, a penalty that, the clubs' attorneys say, would all but ruin the businesses. The clubs have appealed, but Backstreet is now negotiating with the city for a reduced punishment.

As the Midtown bar scene continues to grow into a mini-Buckhead, look for additional restrictions on Atlanta's nightlife.