Starkville aldermen will consider allowing businesses in certain parts of the city to serve alcohol without food, the second change that would allow a Tupelo-based cigar shop and lounge to open a location downtown.
The change would allow John Higgins, the owner of Spring Street Cigars, to include a brewpub in the cigar shop’s Starkville location, planned for the former Mugshots building at the intersection of Main and Washington streets.
Higgins opened the original Spring Street Cigars location in Tupelo in 2014 and also has locations in Oxford and Booneville, as well as one set to open in Southaven this year. He told The Dispatch he hopes the Starkville location will be open by summer.
“The building has so much unique space in it that we need some additional things in it to be able to utilize it fully, so (what) we thought we would do is bring in a brewpub,” Higgins said.
The aldermen voted 6-1, with Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver dissenting, to call for the first of two public hearings on the proposed ordinance change. The board can vote on the change after the second hearing.
The state Department of Revenue requires establishments that sell alcoholic beverages to garner 25 percent of their total annual sales from preparing and serving food. However, state law does not define beer as an “alcoholic beverage” and instead classifies it as “an alcoholic content of not more than eight percent (8 percent) by weight.”
The 25-percent rule does not apply to brewpubs, so changing the city’s ordinance would comply with state law, City Attorney Chris Latimer said.
The aldermen voted unanimously in December to amend Starkville’s anti-smoking ordinance to allow smoking lounges in the city’s leisure and entertainment district, which allows open containers of alcohol throughout most of downtown and the Cotton District. The proposed allowance of brewpubs would also only apply to the leisure district.
Mayor Lynn Spruill discouraged Higgins from eventually turning Spring Street Cigars into a restaurant because “smoking and eating are not supposed to go together.” She said she personally would not patronize the shop but supports bringing it to Starkville, calling it a “way cool vibe.”
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty told The Dispatch he likes the new concepts of a cigar shop and brewpub for Starkville.
“I see (brewpubs) in Memphis and I see those in Nashville,” he said. “Mississippi is behind, so to finally get one here is kind of neat.”
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker said he supports considering the change but sees some potential challenges for the city if it passes.
“I think first and foremost, we’ll be monitoring to make sure that the microbrewery falls in the state law threshold and to make sure the other restaurants understand what the ramifications are if they’d like to change their business model and become a brewpub,” Walker said.
Carver had a list of reasons for opposing the potential ordinance change, including “the precedent it sets in the community from a policing standpoint” if an establishment offers alcohol without food.
“I would be very interested in a culinary option being provided for patrons here (at the Mugshots building),” Carver said. “This is obviously a statement place downtown, and I can’t imagine somebody going into a place downtown and having a beverage option but not having a food option.”
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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