Westerly OKs Beer Garden Concept For Beachfront Restaurants

Customers at beachfront restaurants in Westerly could have access to seaside "beer gardens" this summer — and for many summers to come — if a conceptual plan authorized by the town council becomes formalized.

The council discussed the matter at its March 1 meeting where members heard from Police Chief Shawn Lacey, Town Manager J. Mark Rooney, and town solicitor William Conley. The councilors voted unanimously to approve the concept in principal, but passed no ordinance. Rooney suggested that such alcohol service could be regulated through the business licensing process instead of by enacting an ordinance. He passed the baton to Conley, who remarked that flexible and timely enforcement will be important, "considering the expected creativity you'll see in the exercise of this privilege."

Lacey said that letting people drink on the beach at restaurants last summer presented no real problems, but that capacity limits were reduced at that time due to the pandemic. The police chief said that serving areas must be sectioned off, and that people must not be wandering around everywhere with drinks in their hands. In 2020, restaurants on the beaches with liquor licenses were able to extend their serving areas because of new coronavirus guidelines from the state.

Councilors Philip M. Overton and Caswell Cooke, Jr. engaged in a bit of back-and-forth over the wisdom of the plan.“I have always wondered why New England is so puritanical,” said Cooke. “And I’m a traditionalist. But this is legit 1700s here.” Cooke said he did not want the regulations to be too expensive or onerous for business owners, and that it's a "real cool thing in 2021 to be able to amend this rule."

Overton said his "gut does not like alcohol on the beach" but that he believes it can be done in a safe and successful manner. "But if this gets out of control, I will be the first one to bring this up to be revoked," he said. "In its day, Misquamicut was a very wild and crazy place, and I don’t want to see it going back to that."

Cooke asked to be recognized again and argued that he, in fact, would be the first to call for revocation if things got out of hand.

"We transformed that beach from what it was in the 80s to what it is now, and its been 20 years of my life working on that," Cooke said. "I hear you, but I believe everyone's a grownup down there. There’s more disturbances in downtown Westerly than on the beach, and in the 80s there would have been paddy wagons down there. We’ve come a long way; we’re not a honky-tonk people-watching paradise any more."

According to WJAR, Westerly police saw a big increase in people drinking illegally on the beach last summer, and the department instituted uniformed patrols.

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