Walk down the streets near 50th and France and you’ll notice restaurant-goers sipping on a glass of wine, relaxing with a beer or enjoying their favorite cocktail. It’s happy hour in Edina, and hard-working citizens are ready to celebrate with a classic beverage in hand.
Although it may seem second nature to order alcohol while dining out, it wasn’t always that simple. In fact, serving alcohol in Edina restaurants has been a controversial issue for years, one that reflects the integrity of the city and the perseverance demonstrated by its citizens. But thanks to the efforts of multiple individuals over the years, the long road from Prohibition to the present has left Edina with a newfound reason to raise our glasses.
When President Franklin Roosevelt ratified the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933, Prohibition was lifted and Americans were free to drink legally again, for the most part. But in some areas of the country, new rules were put in place to help curb excessive drinking and avoid the big-city image that is associated with the bar scene. Edina was one such place.
“They didn’t want the downtown Minneapolis atmosphere,” speculates David Burley, CEO of Blue Plate Co. and former manager of Edina Grill. “So they took very small and safe steps; they didn’t want to open it up to everything.”
But there were a few options available to citizens. After Prohibition, people could purchase their own alcohol at one liquor store in Edina, Hay and Stenson, or they could enjoy a drink at two area country clubs, Interlachen and Edina Country Club; 3.2 beer was also allowed in some establishments, such as Nolan’s Cafe, the Village Inn and the Brown Derby Cafe (see Last Glance, page xx), all near 50th and France.
And there was always the options of a neighboring town that didn’t enforce strict rules. Marci Matson, executive director of the Edina Historical Society, reports that “people who enjoyed a drink stopped off in St. Louis Park on their way home from work. Or those who worked downtown had drinks there before going home.” St. Louis Park already had an established bar scene, since the community had housed many speakeasies during Prohibition (and police turned a blind eye).
Rules began to change when Virginia Bodine entered the scene in 1976 as the head of Edina’s Chamber of Commerce. She remembers chatting with the owner of a new French café in the Galleria, who asked if the city would consider changing the laws to allow serving wine; apparently, customers were walking out of restaurants because they couldn’t get a glass of wine.
“I was always talking about [the liquor laws] because I felt strongly that it was a business issue,” says Bodine. “That’s why the chamber should be involved.” After eight years of discussions and collaborating with various city members, a petition was finally drafted that got a referendum on the ballot in 1985.
“We got more votes than the mayor did that year. Seventy-five percent of the people who voted said yes to wine in Edina restaurants,” remembers Bodine. It wasn’t a huge surprise; Bodine, who was involved at the recycling center, recalls that before the ordinance passed, “Edina had more wine bottles in our recycling center” than other towns did.
But Edina wasn’t home-free to just serve alcohol. To order a drink at a restaurant, the customer first had to purchase a full meal. Burley remembers that shortly before he opened Edina Grill back in 1999, to enjoy a glass of wine at next-door Tejas, you not only had to order an entrée, “you had to physically have the food in front of you.” There were absolutely no drink specials or popping into a restaurant for an after-work refresher.
Throughout the ’90s, slight alterations and stipulations to the liquor laws arose as new ordinances came into play. According to city clerk Deb Mangen, in 1995 the city required that employees authorized to serve alcohol receive alcohol awareness training, restricted the seats at a bar to no more than 15 percent of total seating and enacted a 60/40 ratio of food sold to wine or beer, which matchedrequirements in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Finally, food didn’t have to precede your glass of wine.
In the late ’90s, the ordinance was amended to allow for hard liquor, not just wine and beer, to be sold at restaurants in Edina. Arrie Larsen Manti, past president of the Chamber of Commerce, remembers that this issue was important to all restaurants, but especially significant to the Southdale Center, which was looking to expand its restaurants at that time.
Soon afterwards, a handful of Edina restaurants wanted to offer discounted alcohol, but all drinks had to be listed on the permanent menu, and drink specials were not allowed. Burley, who managed Edina Grill at the time, wanted to offer half-price bottle nights for wine, so he formally asked the city—and was denied.
But this persistent restaurant manager continued his efforts, and he finally succeeded on his third trip to the city more than 10 years later.. After collaborating with the Minnesota Restaurant Association (MRA) and refining their argument, Burley and other local proponents of changing the liquor laws received long-awaited good news. This past May, restaurant owners learned that they were now allowed on-sale intoxicating liquor licenses, which means that owners can now set their own price points, create discounts, offer half-price bottles, and make happy hour a reality.
The happy-hour ban has been lifted, and Edina continues to celebrate. “It has kind of been a personal mission of mine,” says Burley. There are only a few remaining restrictions, such as raffles, two-for-ones, punch cards and liquor-only establishments, which help maintain “the feel and aesthetic of our business,” he adds.
Although Burley campaigned for years for happy hour specials, he understands the city’s cautious attitude.
“It’s a very well-run city,” he says. “Well-managed, from cops to licenses to services; even the roads in Edina are perfect. My gut tells me that they wanted to maintain that. They eventually relaxed the laws to keep it in line with the other cities, but they did it in such small increments so they could keep it in control and manage it. I think it’s a pretty good strategy.”
Although it may feel as though Prohibition just ended for some, Edina’s path to happy hour has been a gradual process over many years. With careful planning, the city has found the perfect balance between maintaining its hallmark integrity and reputation and accepting the changes that inevitably occur with time.
Less than 30 years ago, food was the only component to a dinner out. Today you can enjoy happy hour specials and even purchase wine at local branches of Chipotle and Noodles & Company. After all, no one ever said that Edina doesn’t like to have fun, and now there’s an extra reason to celebrate. In the words of President Roosevelt, “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”
