Winter Garden passes ordinance to curb post-midnight boozing, preserve “family atmosphere”

You may still be able to get a cocktail in Winter Garden until 2 a.m. despite new restrictions on alcohol sales and consumption intended to preserve the city’s “family friendly environment.”

The new regulations become effective Jan. 1, 2025. 

Unanimously passed by commissioners at the Nov. 14 city commission meeting, Ordinance 24-40 does ban bars and restaurants from selling and patrons from drinking any alcoholic beverages after midnight. But the city is offering a workaround: Bar and restaurant owners can pony up an annual $250 fee for an Extension of Hours Permit and hire “state licensed private security or police protection” to continue pouring until 2 a.m.

That’s “the exact time they’re permitted to serve [until] today,” noted Winter Garden Planning Director Kelly Carson during the commission meeting.

Just seven Winter Garden establishments currently serve alcohol past midnight. Only three are in Downtown Winter Garden: Tony’s Liquors, Pilar’s Martini Bar, The Whole Enchilada, all on Plant Street. Cariera’s Fresh Italian, Mr. Shot Cantina and Miller’s Ale House are on Colonial Drive. Hagan O’Reilly’s Irish Pub is on Marsh Road.

“There was a lot invested in the ordinance, so it was obvious it was going to pass,” Becky Roper, owner of Pilar’s Martini Bar, which closes at 2 a.m., told VoxPopuli. "I'm not sure how it's going to work out for them or for the businesses that are involved … I don’t know what their original intent was, but I don’t know that they [the city] got what they originally intended.” Does Roper think Pilar's will be impacted? "Ask me in six months," she said. 

“We don't need more red tape,” said Chef Eddie Gaunt, who owns Matthew’s Steakhouse on Plant Street with his wife Chystal, after the vote. “Florida is a fairly easy state to do business in. Follow the model. They make it easier so more businesses spend more money, and the economy booms. That's why Florida's done really well. If you're pro-business, you don’t put a bunch of red tape.

“You know, if I want to put a table on the side of my building, I have to have a permit,” Gaunt continued. “If I want umbrellas out in front of my restaurant, I need a permit. If I want to have live entertainment, I need to have a permit. It's like permit, permit, permit, and all that costs money.” 

Matthew’s Steakhouse operates 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., but Gaunt got lumped in with other bar and restaurant owners because Ordinance 24-40 also determines which restaurants get labeled “fine dining,” a designation he needs to secure his Specialty Food Service license so the steakhouse, currently serving beer and wine, can also serve liquor. Last year, Florida law changed to allow restaurants with 120 seats to obtain such licenses. Previously, restaurants had to have 150 seats. Chystal said their patrons want Old Fashioneds alongside their prime cuts. “We’re not doing cheap shots. We’re not a party place,” she said.

Meanwhile, Gaunt guesttimates he’s lost $450,000 in the last 18 months, awaiting permits, licensure and Ordinance 24-40.

Vomit, condoms, underwear

The impetus for bringing this ordinance before the commission for a vote was to align the city’s code on alcoholic beverages with the city charter and new state regulations. The ordinance also establishes food service requirements for businesses serving alcohol and clarifies packaged sales within grocery stores.

But the “overarching reason,” was to preserve the city’s “family-friendly environment while also supporting a thriving business community,” said Carson. She described it as a "delicate balance" as she underscored police calls and public complaints about debauched behavior associated with “late-night alcohol consumption.”

The city’s Business Impact Estimate, which accompanied the proposed ordinance in the Oct. 24 agenda packet, stated that the city had “observed that the sale, serving, and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages after midnight gives rise to a number of negative effects including, but not limited to: loud and raucous behavior by patrons; causing a shift in patronage from shopping, dining, and family entertainment to purchasing and consuming alcohol; requiring the City to expend increased resources upon police patrols and other law enforcement actions …”

“Our Parks Department has to basically power wash all downtown every morning,” Carson bluntly told VoxPopuli, after the ordinance passed on Nov. 14.

Carson shared more vivid details in a presentation at the Oct. 24 city commission meeting, explaining that Parks staff routinely encounter vomit and other bodily fluids along with discarded condoms and undergarments as they clean up public areas in the early morning hours. She also mentioned “illicit and illegal” behavior caught on video in the city’s parking garage and other secluded spaces. 

"We have a trove," she told VoxPopuli separately. 

Police reports included with the Oct. 24 meeting agenda provide additional perspective. According to one report generated by the Winter Garden Police Department (WGPD), from Aug. 15, 2022 to Aug. 15, 2024, there were 1,739 police calls to the downtown business district. Pilar’s Martini Bar topped the list with 83 calls for police assistance. Tony’s Liquors made 78, Plant Street Market, 77, and The Whole Enchilada, 62.

Reasons for the calls run from intoxication and guests no longer welcome on properties to disturbances, fights, battery and injuries. Still, just 196 of the calls — or 11 percent — during the two year period, were made to WGPD after midnight. This suggests the majority of objectionable behavior occurs before midnight. Only 1.5 percent of the calls evolved into  cases pursued by police. 

Another WGPD report examining six months of calls to police from 48 Winter Garden bars and dining establishments found the greatest number of calls from Feb. 29 to Aug. 29, 2024, came from Aji Sushi at Winter Garden Village (56), mainly for dine-and-dash theft. That was followed by 39 calls from Beth’s Burger Bar on Stoneybrook Parkway, mainly for reports of suspicious person/car/activity, and then 23 calls from Bella Italia on Tilden Road, primarily for fraud.

Meanwhile among other after-midnighters: Cariera’s had six calls related to their burglar alarm going off; Hagan O’Reilly’s had 16 calls, largely for alarms and suspicious activity; Miller’s Ale House had 13, mainly for police officers to assist other agencies; and Mr. Shot Cantina had eight for alarms and some fights. There was no data in this report separating calls before or after midnight.

Cost of service

City Manager Jon Williams declined to answer VoxPopuli’s questions about how purchasing the ability to serve alcohol until 2 a.m. helped preserve the city’s family-friendly vibe or if the Extension of Hours Permit was just another way to levy fees on businesses. Pleading a busy schedule, he sent VoxPopuli the city’s original presentation about the late-night permits, in a Thursday email and said, “that should answer your questions.”

Carson denied the Extension of Hours Permit undercut the goals of the alcohol ordinance.

“This is just kind of something we're putting in place, again, as a fail safe in case we do have persistent issues,” she told VoxPopuli. 

“Again, we're not trying to shut anybody down or impact anybody. But if there are persistent, continual problems that we can trace back to a specific establishment, then we just want some mechanism where we can work with them to resolve the issue first and foremost. If we notice persistent issues happening, there's a mechanism where we can say, Well, okay, now we revoke that privilege that we're giving you of extending those hours.”

Some businesses may find the cost to stay open late too high.

Tony’s Liquors & Bar, currently open till 1 a.m., will start closing at midnight come January, owners Aaron Dudek and Jason Anderson told VoxPopuli. They’re sacrificing six business hours a week, 312 hours a year to skirt the costs associated with permits and security.

“It’s not worth the hours to be open,” said Dudek.

Jeremy Gottschalk contributed reporting.