Politics & Government

Store Owner Pushes to Change Area Liquor Laws

Jason Alvey, owner of The Four Firkins in St. Louis Park, has spent much of 2011 working to change laws that affect his industry.

Friday’s decision by the Minneapolis City Council to allow bars, liquor stores and microbreweries to open closer to churches won’t immediately impact St. Louis Park business owner Jason Alvey, but Alvey was at the center of the issue nonetheless.

The owner of craft beer store  was a strong proponent of the change, which abolishes an old ordinance that forbid businesses that sell alcohol from operating within 300 feet of places of worship. Alvey first testified at an earlier public hearing on the issue, then attended Friday’s council meeting when the final vote was made.

“I did this out of principal—I’m pro-business,” said Alvey. "(Opening a business) shouldn't have anything to do with proximity to a church."

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That very ordinance—along with another that prevents two liquor stores from being within 2,000 feet of each other in Minneapolis—kept Alvey from opening his business in the city three years ago. Alvey said he spent months driving around Minneapolis, trying to find the right locale, but every good spot he found was hindered by one or both of the liquor laws.

“I told (City Council) that because of ordinances like this, it’s a big reason my business is in St. Louis Park, not Minneapolis,” said Alvey, who lives in Minneapolis.

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For Alvey, speaking his mind about liquor laws is starting to become a habit. In February, he started pushing the legislature to , which is currently prohibited by state law. Alvey ended up attending and speaking at a number of committee hearings over the next several months. Though a bill allowing such sales  in May, he said he plans on making a renewed push next year.

At the same time he was fighting for his T-shirt bill, Alvey was also lending his support to the “Surly bill,” which would allow breweries to sell glasses of their own beer. That measure ended up passing the legislature.

“I am passionate about this industry,” Alvey said. “This is only the beginning. We want to change a lot of (liquor laws) here in Minnesota.”


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