The petition can be signed at Here’s to You Pub and Grub. Courtesy | Sean Callaghan

Hillsdale County is the only county in Michigan that prohibits restaurants and bars from selling liquor on Sundays, but voters could change that in November if a petition drive collects enough signatures. 

City councilman Robert Socha introduced the petition to repeal Hillsdale County’s blue law. If his effort gathers at least 1,492 signatures of registered voters by July 31, voters will have a chance to repeal the law during the election on Nov. 5. The law prohibits liquor sales in restaurants from 7 a.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday, according to Socha. 

“I would encourage my neighbors not to drink in excess, but I’m not going to encode that and enforce that in law,” Socha said. “To vote yes and impose those restrictions is really handcuffing all local businesses with their Sunday business and sales. That’s why most places are closed on Sundays in Hillsdale.”

Here’s to You Pub and Grub and Johnny T’s Bistro in Hillsdale and Olivia’s Chop House in Jonesville are closed on Sundays. El Cerrito, Hunt Club, Underdogs, and White Oaks Golf Club in Hillsdale serve liquor throughout the week but remain open on Sundays, only serving wine and beer. 

“When there’s a football game on TV at Underdogs and it’s a Sunday and you want to have a gin and tonic, you can’t order that because of this law, but you can order a beer,” Socha said. “It seems silly to me that you can allow one and not the other.”

Mike Prince, pastor of Hillsdale Community Church of the Nazarene, supports the ban on Sunday liquor sales.

“When you talk about opening it up on Sunday, you’re just opening up the doors again for more accidents, problems, and domestic violence situations,” he said.

If the matter appears on the ballot in November, Socha said voters who want to repeal the law will have to vote “no” and voters who want to preserve it will have to vote “yes.”

“The way the law was drafted is the way that we have to put it on the ballot again,” he said. 

When voters approved the ban in 1980, most voters within the city of Hillsdale favored it, 1,570 votes to 1,136, according to a document from Hillsdale County Clerk Marney Kast. In the county as a whole, 8,722 voters favored the ban and 6,139 opposed it. 

Socha said his petition is available to sign in several Hillsdale locations, including Here’s to You Pub and Grub, Hillsdale Brewing Company, and White Oaks Golf Club. 

“Blue laws were there to keep taverns from opening because they wanted people to behave well on Sundays,” Assistant Professor of History Miles Smith said. “But by the 20th century, they were heavily supported by working class Americans because it basically gave you a free day off from work.” 

Smith said he thinks many people don’t see blue laws as serving a purpose anymore.

“Because we aren’t as much of a church society, they’re not prioritized as much,” he said. 

Ballot questions can address the same topic only once every four years, said Socha, so failing to repeal the ban this year means the next attempt could not occur until 2028. He said Kevin Conant, owner of Here’s to You Pub and Grub, tried to get enough signatures for a petition but fell short. 

Conant said the petition fell short of 600 signatures, as previously reported in The Collegian. 

Hillsdale Brewing Company co-owner Felicia Finch said although her business doesn’t sell liquor, the ban hurts those who do. 

“As a patron I’d be able to partake in a local business for food and a cocktail,” she said. “I enjoy a nice sangria with my meal occasionally.”

Finch said it might encourage more businesses to open on Sundays if they could have their full menu available. 

“It’s an old law that needs to go,” she said. “We need to enter this century and allow local people to support local businesses.”

John Smith, director of operations at Underdogs, said because grocery stores can sell liquor on Sundays, restaurants also should be able to sell it.

“We pay for a liquor license and it really reflects on business,” he said. 

Socha said if this law is repealed, restaurants will be able to sell liquor with no restrictions. 

“I don’t advocate for alcoholism or drunk and disorderly conduct, but I’d love to be able to get a Manhattan on a Sunday,” Socha said.