What a 4 a.m. Closing Time Would Mean for California Bars

This week, I talked with Scott Wiener, a state senator from San Francisco, about his second attempt at getting a sweeping, divisive housing bill through the Legislature.

But that’s not the only bill he’s resurrecting. For the third year in a row, Wiener is trying to put off closing time with legislation that would let cities decide whether to allow bars, clubs and restaurants to keep selling alcohol until 4 a.m.

“We’re at a disadvantage here,” he told me, adding that visitors from other states are “shocked when, at 1:30, the bartender announces last call.”

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown disagreed.

While businesses and cities have supported the move, since it could boost revenue, Brown sided with law enforcement officials who were concerned about drunken driving and other problems.

“I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem,” he wrote in his note explaining his veto of the bill, S.B. 905.

So how big a difference could those extra two hours actually make?

I asked Michael Valladares, who, along with his partner, owns the Hotsy Totsy Club in Albany, California, a neighborhood haunt with a long history and a killer cocktail menu.

“I think it’s an interesting idea because obviously bars are so drastically different,” he said. “If you’re a big, 500-seat club in San Francisco, that’s a lot of revenue.”

Hotsy, on the other hand, he views as a “a place to be, not a place to party.”

So a couple of extra hours a night wouldn’t be gangbusters for his bottom line, but it wouldn’t hurt, either.

“If our nut to stay open is like $30 an hour, it doesn’t take much,” to make money, Valladares explained. “We’re selling $10 to $12 cocktails, not $3 beers.”

And the taco truck in the yard might be able to pick up a little more business.

Plus, his bar’s clientele and bartenders skew older than other places in the area that are popular with Berkeley students. As a result, he doesn’t have to worry about dealing with young, rowdy drinkers and staffers without the experience to know when to cut people off.

For the bars that do, Valladares said, “I think the extra two hours would be a nightmare.”

Ultimately, though, he said he supported letting locals make their own decisions.

“The American saloon has always been the kind of democratic center of any city,” he said. “It’s a place for the community.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.