Pre-Prohibition Booze Ban Voted Out In The Heights

Last night’s election was historic for a number of reasons, but in Houston, that has everything to do with the fact that folks in the Heights can now legally purchase alcohol for off-premise (read: not at a bar or restaurant) consumption.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the measure passed handily with over 60% of the vote in the Heights, repealing a longstanding ban passed in 1912 — eight years before Prohibition was passed. , the ban required patrons at bars and restaurant to join “private clubs” in order to buy a cocktail or beer at bars and restaurants.

Perhaps most importantly, the measure’s passage paves the way for HEB to open its first Heights location. The Austin-based grocery chain pumped more than $60,000 into the Houston Heights Beverage Coalition, a group that advocated for lifting the ban, and has said that it will open an outpost on Shepherd Road by early 2018.

It also appears as if voter turnout was remarkably high in the Heights. Of the 10,000 or so folks that inhabit the neighborhood, over 7,000 cast their ballots for (or against) lifting the alcohol sales ban.

• Heights voters overturn alcohol prohibition [Houston Chronicle]