Why Do Bars Close at Midnight on Saturdays in Oxford?

When the students began to trickle back from winter break, they celebrated on the Square. A quarter past midnight, the alleys are loud with drunken candor. The streets are full because the bars are closing — but the people in the streets aren’t ready to go to bed.

Oxford police and mounted patrol stroll the streets for brawls and DUIs, ready for complaints of noise and disturbances as cars and taxis full of merry-makers leave the Square.

The bars close at midnight in accordance to the city’s law. The city’s Code of Ordinances’ chapter 14, section 10 forbids sale of alcohol between midnight and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, including Sundays with exception of hours between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. The only exception is football game weekends, when the bars can stay open until 1 a.m.

Deputy Chief James Owens with Oxford police department said, “The bars could stay open past midnight, but they’d have to stop selling alcohol past that time.”

Rooster’s Blues House already has a business plan in accordance to the law: a late night kitchen. Customers could order food and sit outside on the balcony to wind down.

Scott Michael, its owner, said, “It really benefits Oxford police because they don’t have people pouring into the streets all at one time, and it benefits us because we get to sell more food.”

However, Michael prefers that bars stay open longer in the interest of tourism.

“When they’ve come all this way and paid for transportation and a hotel room, it’s hard to explain to them that the bar has to close at midnight,” he said.

David Sage, manager of the Corner Bar, said, “Monday through Wednesdays we close at midnight, but at 11:45 we begin shooing people out. Other bars do this, so everyone’s in the streets and the police have their hands full.”

To Sage, getting people to leave the bars at midnight on Saturday feels like a weekday night to him. As the president of Friends of the Mounted Patrol, a nonprofit fundraising organization that helps the Oxford’s mounted officers, he believes the police may have their hands full with street congestion.

“I want an extra hour of alcohol sales,” Sage said. “I don’t care for Sunday sales. The Corner isn’t open on Sundays. But with the extra hour to close the bars, the customers can trickle out. It’s better than everybody shooing people out all at once.”

“It is our job to provide service 24/7 at all times,” Owens said. “It’s great that the Square is thriving and we must protect the historic integrity of downtown Oxford as well as the patrons. We want the patrons to feel protected at any time, any hour.”

Sage mentioned the possibility of the city petitioning Alcohol Beverage Commission to help them have an election to extend the hours. The statewide law holds the hours of sale of alcoholic beverages end at midnight on Saturday until otherwise provided by either the state’s Department of Revenue or the local government itself. The city may have extended the bar hours to 1 a.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and Saturdays could stay open until 1 a.m. on game weekends, yet this may not be enough according to the bar owners and its patrons.

“I’d like to tell them we want just one more hour, just to have the customers leave more peacefully,” Sage said.

Michael said, “I’m for it. It would definitely attract a different group of people. It would be great to have an opportunity to stay open longer when there is a demand.”

Their sentiment is backed by some of the bar goers. Lila Agner, a mechanical engineering major at University of Mississippi, is from New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Oxford laws are vastly different from her home.

“Being from New Orleans I was thoroughly confused by lack of go-cups,” Agner said, “But much more confused that bars close at 12. I know a lot of people don’t go out until 10, so by the time you get to the Square, then a bar and order a drink it’s 10:30. And that hour and a half just isn’t worth it.

“Bars don’t have to be open 24 hours a day like in New Orleans but another hour really wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

Students at University of Mississippi weighed in on the video created by Samantha Mitchell.

When asked about the subject, Mayor George “Pat” Patterson said, “It’s the law. We have enough alcohol problems as is.”

Oxford’s conservative stance on alcohol is not a surprise. Mississippi asserted its stance on alcohol by being the first state to ratify the Prohibition and the last state to repeal the Prohibition ban in 1966, 33 years after the amendment passed in 1933. Even then, the state opted out of a statewide acceptance of alcohol, choosing to create a local option law that allowed each county or judicial district to vote an end to the prohibition themselves.

Mississippi still stands out among its neighboring states in their “last-call” (hour of bars closing) laws. Alabama’s last call law maintains bars close at 2 a.m., while in Louisiana, they may remain open all the time until otherwise voted on by its residents. In Tennessee, the last call is at 3 a.m., yet in Mississippi, the last call is either at midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the counties.

It may be the only Mississippi college town to do this— in Starkville, the bars stay open until midnight on Monday to Thursday, and until 1 a.m. on Friday to Saturday. It has a special exception for football game weeks: on Mondays to Thursdays the bars may remain open until 1 a.m. Hattiesburg, home to University of Southern Mississippi, has its bars close at 2 a.m. on Saturdays.

Regardless of how Oxonians feel about the hours of the bars closing on Saturday, the law still stands. According to Alcoholic Beverages Commission (ABC), sales after midnight and Sunday sales by on-premises permittee holders may only occur if the hours for sale have been extended by the Department of Revenue which heads the organization.

ABC also asserted on its website that a county elections for or against the sale of alcoholic beverages may not be made in any county more than once every two years. With the passing of the cold beer sales in Oxford in mind this may not be a feasible conversation with tangible outcomes until 2016.

Callie Daniels is a staff reporter for HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.