Cheers! Pennsylvania’s Silly Happy Hour Laws Change This Week

Customers at Tattooed Mom, a Philadelphia bar that could benefit from the new happy hour laws in Pennsylvania (photo courtesy Visit Philly)

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Cheers: Pennsylvania’s Silly Happy Hour Laws Change This Week

Pennsylvania has a reputation for being among the more backwards states when it comes to our liquor laws. Keep in mind that it wasn’t so long ago that you couldn’t buy wine or beer at the Ack-a-me. And can you imagine not being able to get a drink on Sunday? That only became legal in the 1970s. But our archaic liquor laws do change over time, and some are changing this week.

Starting on Friday, bars in Pennsylvania can offer happy hours for up to a total of 24 hours per week. That’s up from the previous maximum of 14 hours of happy hour per week. Bars and restaurants can now also offer discounts on food-and-drink combos. Yes, it was previously illegal to offer a “deal” on buying alcohol and food together. So you couldn’t, say, offer a half-priced draft beer for every 24 hot wings ordered.

So can a bar just pick one day a week and have a “happy day” of 24 hours of cheap drinks instead of having happy hours throughout the week? Nope. For one thing, bars can’t open until 7 a.m. and, with the exception of specially licensed after-hours clubs, must close by 2 a.m. And for another, the law specifies that you can’t have a happy hour that lasts more than four hours, nor can you have a happy hour that extends past midnight.

It’s unclear just how many bars are going to extend their happy hours. Some bars, like Bob & Barbara’s on South Street, don’t even offer happy hours, because the pricing is already rock-bottom and the crowds already show up religiously — there’s just no need to further entice people in. Out in Delco, the owner of the Clam Tavern and the Broadway Bar & Grille is expanding happy hour at both restaurants immediately, with a kickoff party for the daily three-hour happy hours on Friday, even though he already gets good crowds at both. And some establishments I spoke with didn’t even realize there was a change to the happy hour laws. So time will tell.

Mayor Parker Says to Expect Her 76ers Arena Decision “Very Soon”

A huge crowd turned out at the Convention Center last night for Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s town hall to discuss the proposed 76ers arena. It was such a huge crowd that they had not one but two overflow rooms, and even as the event started, there was reportedly still a long, long line of people trying to get in. Lots and lots of people spoke out against the arena. Some spoke in favor of it. Mayor Parker didn’t say one way or the other how she feels about the proposal, but she did say that we can expect her decision “very soon.” You can watch the entire town hall for yourself.

Representatives for the arena previously indicated that they need City Council to greenlight the project by the end of 2024 in order for it to stay on schedule. Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy continues to push to bring the Sixers to Camden.

We Love Rankings

Congrats to New Hope, which was just named by Travel & Leisure the “Best Small Arts & Culture Town” in the country. Wonder what it’s like to live in New Hope? Check out our handy New Hope neighborhood guide.

SEPTA Closing Regional Rail Ticket Offices

Want to show up at the Regional Rail station in, say, Swarthmore to buy a ticket for the train? You won’t be able to after September 19th. SEPTA is closing its ticket offices at a bunch of Regional Rail stations starting on September 20th. It’s all part of SEPTA’s push to get people to adopt their electronic fare payment options. Of course, you can still use cash to just buy a ticket on the train, so …

By the Numbers

1.4 percent: Decline in Philly’s poverty rate from 2022 to 2023. That may sound like a small number, but it’s actually the biggest year-over-year decline we’ve seen in a decade. Alas, Philadelphia is still the nation’s poorest big city. Though former mayoral candidate Allan Domb says there’s a solution for that.

14: Number of leadoff home runs hit by Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber thus far this season, as of last night’s game against the Rays, which we won. That’s a new Major League Baseball record. And given that we have more than two weeks left of the regular season, he could very well expand the record (provided he recovers quickly from the sore elbow that forced him to leave Tuesday’s game early and miss last night’s entirely). Note that this weekend’s games against the Mets, who are now in second place behind us in the National League East, are the last Phillies home games of the regular season.

$25.1 million: What the Philly-based owner of the prestigious Rittenhouse Hotel just paid for the significantly less prestigious Aloft Philadelphia Downtown hotel on North Broad Street. But what the Aloft doesn’t have in luxury it more than makes up for by being a two-tenths-of-a-mile stroll from Reading Terminal Market and the edge of Chinatown.

Local Talent

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival is well underway, and fest stalwart Pig Iron Theatre Company just launched previews of its highly anticipated latest work, Poor Judge, an experimental cabaret based on the music of Aimee Mann. To hear from the show’s creator and to listen to some of the music, look no further than this interview by Peter Crimmins at WHYY. And if you’re looking for more Fringe picks, here you go.