In the days before Houston voters head to the polls, Agricole Hospitality has been lobbying hard for the repeal of an archaic liquor law that complicates how cocktails are served in the Heights.
In a series of Instagram posts and an impassioned blog, Agricole’s Morgan Weber lays out the reasoning behind his company’s support of Proposition F, which would repeal the requirement that people wishing to drink at restaurants in the Heights join a private club in order to get their cocktail. As part of the Houston Heights Restaurant Coalition, Agricole helped gather more than 1,500 signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
“While the current process isn’t too onerous for patrons, it’s a regulatory nightmare for the establishment, requiring a lot of paperwork and red tape that puts businesses at a competitive disadvantage to counterparts elsewhere around town,” Weber wrote on the company’s blog. "Voters who support this measure are casting a vote in favor of small businesses like ours.”
Liquor laws have been changing in the decades-old neighborhood since last year, when voters passed a measure that repealed a pre-Prohibition law that banned purchasing alcohol for off-site consumption (like at a grocery store or wine shop). It seems likely that this proposition will pass, as last year’s measure scored something like 70% of the neighborhood’s vote.
Houstonians head to the polls on Tuesday, November 7. Stay tuned for the results of this election.