Wet Businesses In A Dry County

The owners of Mike's Place restaurant in downtown Conway got the OK to open an Italian restaurant nearby. It becomes the 10th private club license approved in the Conway area.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) voted 4-0 to clear the path for that new restaurant, upsetting residents even more who oppose drinking in dry counties.

After a hearing that lasted several hours, the owners of Conway's Mike's Place restaurant get private club status for a second restaurant.

Faulkner County already has nine private clubs that serve alcohol. The list includes: Mike's Place, Oak Street Bistro, Outback Steakhouse, Conway Country Club, Centennial Country Club, the VFW hall, the Conway Supper Club, the Knights of Columbus, and Agora Conference Center.

Conway Mayor Tab Townsell says they don' t want to be considered a ?wet? area because ?wet? technically means you can have liquor stores, it does not allow business owners to serve alcohol by the glass in their restaurants. That requires an additional vote of the people. Townsell says that's why the private club license is the way to go.

He says, "There's a worse idea in people's mind about having a liquor store on the corner than having the restaurant that serves a polite beverage with their meal."

Some residents, who are bothered that the Conway area has so many private clubs, showed up at Wednesday?s hearing to speak.

Dick Longing says, ?What is happening in Faulkner County and other counties is we're being voted wet one place at a time by this board, which I have a problem with. That?s not the American way. It?s not the way things should be."

Arkansas has 32 wet counties and 43 dry counties. It takes 38 percent of registered voters who voted in the last governor?s election to get the wet-dry status put to a vote to change. Since these laws were last updated in the 1990s, no counties have gone wet. However, the board has seen an increase in private club applications.

Board director Robert Moore says, "People who voted dry in a dry county, feel strongly that it should be dry. The Legislature has provided for these private clubs to operate in the dry counties, so there'll always be some controversy I think."

Construction is scheduled to start next week on the new restaurant called Michelangelo?s. They hope to open in November.

You may recall Brick Oven Pizza in Conway applied for private club status last year. They were denied. Owners appealed and lost again. We contacted the restaurant's owners. They had no comment other than to say it's an issue they are no longer pursuing.