A website called Watchdog.org has published an article suggesting that the Vermont ban on happy hours — selling drinks at lower prices during certain times — is economically illogical.

Writer Jon Street quoted the owner of Burlington’s Ake’s Place, Ronnie Ryan, who suggested that the state should allow bars to lure in customers with occasional happy hours.

“Burlington is so rich in young professionals and college students, I’m confident it would help business, and if it helps our business it also helps the state as it will generate more money in taxes,” he said.

Bill Goggins, director of education, licensing and enforcement for the Vermont Department of Liquor Control, broadly explained the role of the state government in keeping people safe, while a fellow at the Cato Institute lamented, “Why should Vermont insert itself between deals that please restaurants and customers alike?”

Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era drinking and is the author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England, published by History Press in 2014.

14 replies on “Should Vermont Lift the Ban on Happy Hours? Watchdog.org Thinks So”

  1. Very grateful for their flatlander opinions, it’s always cute when they feign concern about little old Vermont.

  2. Just as long as they add multiple bus routes to get people home after a happy hour where you have to adhere to yet another law, your ability & will power to have no more than 1 drink per hour. If you consume any more than that, the big $$$ you save on your happy hour excursion can go toward your legal fees, fines & crash course costs after you pull a DUI. I recall the days of penny drafts and .99 cent mixed drinks in downtown Burlington. The only people that benefited were the makers of headache medication.

  3. No. As a local young professional who also likes to go out, I personally have seen so many out-of-state underage people out there; it’s disgusting. Containment is already a problem. Too many drunk kids ruin our community! But when they say “rich in young professionals and college students”, I assume they are talking out of state wallets.

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