Fort Lauderdale may lift booze ban on sand for hotel guests

FORT LAUDERDALE — For almost four a long time, Fort Lauderdale has experienced a ban on booze at the seashore — the sandy portion, anyway. But there is now talk of letting alcohol gross sales on the sand yr-spherical.

Not everyone would by permitted to sip cocktails by the sea.

To indulge your responsible pleasure, you’d require to be a lodge guest or rent a beach lounge chair.

Lodges alone — no bars, no restaurants — would be allowed to promote all those people chardonnays and pina coladas, from Bahia Mar south of Las Olas all the way to Dawn Boulevard. Clients would also be equipped to buy food stuff from the hotel menu and have it sent directly to their lounge chair.

Lodges along A1A are pushing the approach, but some locals think it is a undesirable concept.

“Most individuals will not consume just a single drink — they’ll consume two, 3 or four,” claimed Warren Sackler, a resident who lives a block from the seashore. “There’s undoubtedly heading to be additional drama if you allow people drink on the beach. The law enforcement really don’t like babysitting and they are going to have to deal with this.”

After on a time, throughout the raunchy heydays of Spring Crack, Fort Lauderdale allowed the sale of booze on the beach front.

That finished 37 decades back, when metropolis leaders banned alcoholic beverages on the seashore, hoping to entice a more nicely-heeled clientele.

Currently, fines selection from $50 (for very first-time offenders) to $500 (for repeat offenders) if you get caught with a cold one particular on the sand.

Accommodations together the strip are gung-ho about the idea of providing liquor to friends although they bury their toes in the sand for one motive: It’s superior for business enterprise.

Getting served upcoming to the surf is simply anything today’s subtle traveler has occur to hope, explained Tamas Vago, typical supervisor of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Seashore Vacation resort.

“Many company feel that is portion of the resort encounter,” Vago explained. “In the earlier 15 a long time, Fort Lauderdale has gone from a Spring Crack spot to a globe-course place. We have large-end, five-star motels heading up on the beach front. We are attracting a increased caliber visitor who desires that working experience. In hospitality we often try to satisfy our guests’ needs, for the reason that we want them to come back.”

Some nicely-traveled guests have been shocked to study they simply cannot purchase a chilled glass of wine on the beach front, claimed Mazen Saleh, basic manager of the Four Seasons Resort and Residences.

“Staying at a 5-star resort assets, they’ll say, ‘What do you signify I cannot get a salad on the beach? What do you necessarily mean I simply cannot get pleasure from a glass of wine if I’m sitting down on the beach?’” he stated.

Former Mayor Jim Naugle claims Fort Lauderdale had very good rationale to ban booze on the seashore back in 1985.

“There was a lot of underage drinking and rowdiness,” he explained. “There were beer cans and litter all above the beach. But moments modify. We don’t have Spring Crack anymore, not like it was in the 1980s. The rooms are high priced now. It is not like Panama Metropolis.”

The strategy would possible get underway afterwards this calendar year, but only if it gets a nod from city leaders.

Commissioners are envisioned to vote on the proposal in mid-August, with a closing vote set for September.

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Beachfront hotels would have to get a permit from the town right before they could serve prospects on the sand. Support would probable be constrained to selected hours, say from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mayor Dean Trantalis and all 4 commissioners embraced the notion in the course of a City Hall conference in early July, declaring it would assistance Fort Lauderdale inns contend in a hard market.

“I feel our competitiveness transpires to be seashores in other nations that do give very similar expert services,” Trantalis mentioned. “When people today occur to vacation right here from Turkey or Greece or Italy and Spain that have these features, I feel a ton of people today look at that knowledge to our practical experience.”

But the mayor built it crystal clear he doesn’t want to see people today going for walks down the beach with their foodstuff and beverages.

“The alcohol and foods has to be consumed at that chair,” Trantalis explained. “If you want to choose your dirty martini to the shoreline, you just can’t.”

That one rule is small consolation to close by inhabitants who have come up with a very long listing of downsides to allowing for booze on the beach front, claimed Bill Brown, president of the Central Beach Alliance neighborhood affiliation.

Check with what could quite possibly go completely wrong and they’ll explain to you.

“I don’t have any execs,” mentioned beach front resident Paula Yukna. “I have a total large amount of disadvantages. Permitting alcohol on the seashore is going to deliver a ton of issues. Who’s heading to examine ID? What if they get alcohol and hand it out to their 16-year-previous friends? Who is likely to halt individuals from obtaining up and going for walks down the beach front? If they consume also a lot and go in the ocean, the lifeguards will be accountable for saving them.”

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Serving people on the seaside will also bring far more litter, Brown claimed. A lot more litter means additional rats — and much more pigeons and seagulls swooping down for scraps.

Then there’s the challenge of fairness.

“You’re telling me I can not carry my cooler [of beer] to the beach when the guy next to me is having served just mainly because he’s at a lodge?” Brown stated. “What about the restaurants and bars? Why aren’t they permitted to serve?”

Excellent question, reported Peter Ricci, hospitality program director at Florida Atlantic University.

“The strategy in notion is wonderful,” he mentioned. “It’s a excellent factor for the economic climate and the readers. But I assume it is a minimal shorter-sighted to only include the hotels. I assume it’s a minimal unfair and biased.”

As a former general supervisor for accommodations in Sarasota, Clearwater and Jacksonville, Ricci recalls friends staying served food and beverages on the sand.

“Every city I worked in permitted beverages at the seaside,” Ricci reported. “I often believed Fort Lauderdale was far too rigid.”

Tim Petrillo, operator of the preferred Casablanca Cafe, states not all dining places have the personnel to manage extra support on the seashore.

“I don’t know how the other [bars and restaurants] would come to feel,” he stated. “But I just can’t randomly assign a server to provide food items and beverages above on the beach.”

Petrillo, who also serves as chairman of the Broward County Tourism Coalition Council, claims he understands the push by significant-finish resorts to be much more competitive.

“I do assume we will need to have a aggressive sector for tourism,” he claimed. “A whole lot of folks take staycations. When you pay a visit to Fort Lauderdale, you assume to be able to get a cocktail when you’re gazing at the sea.”

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Dan Lindblade, president of the Better Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, says the time is proper to make a alter.

“If you’re paying that substantially dollars on a resort home, you are expecting the high-quality amenities of a luxurious resort,” he said. “You really do not want to be tied to sitting down up at the pool deck to purchase food and drinks.”

It’s too quickly to say whether bars and restaurants must also be allowed to serve patrons on the sand, Lindblade claimed.

As for the critics fretting about rats, pigeons and litter, Lindblade waved absent their objections.

“We previously have rats and litter,” he claimed. “The lodges are likely to be in cost of grooming their areas and cleansing up. These are all tempest-in-a-teapot situations. It’s a major adjust. Any time there is a adjust, there’s always naysayers.”

Susannah Bryan can be arrived at at [email protected] or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan