New bill would bring happy hour back to Indiana bars, restaurants

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — No two-for-one drink specials or drinking games allowed. That has been the norm in Indiana, but now that could change.

Bars and restaurants are now getting ready for happy hour again.

Happy hour was canceled in 1985 by lawmakers who now say happy hour will help restaurants and bars stay open.

“It was a lot better for businesses back then. When they ended the happy hour, everybody started going to Louisville to get those cheaper prices,” said Jeff Crawford, a self-described regular at Hoopsters Sports Bar and Grill in Jeffersonville.

Crawford is old enough to remember when happy hour in Indiana was legal.

“There is no reason not to allow that to happen when the states surrounding us are doing it,” he said.

The new law, waiting for Gov. Eric Holcomb's signature, would allow 19 hours of drink specials each week. Happy hour would be capped at four hours a day, and not extend past 10 p.m.

“My slowest night right now would be Monday and Thursday,” said Noe Munoz, owner of Hoopsters in Jeffersonville.

Thursday afternoons around 5 p.m., the bar at Hoopsters is wide open, and Munoz knows he is losing customers to bars across the river as his brother owns a restaurant in Louisville.

“And he puts the happy hour specials, I think if they bring the happy hour back here, bar owners will have a chance to offer some specials for a limited amount of time,” Munoz said.

Indiana lawmakers canceled happy hour in 1985 in an effort to curb binge drinking and slow down drunk driving. A loophole in Indiana liquor laws does allow for modified drink specials. This new law will allow restaurant and bar owners, like Munoz, to target specific times and dates to fill their businesses.

“Will bring some of the traffic in here just to have one or two drinks and to have dinner,” said Munoz.

The happy hour legislation flew through the Indiana Statehouse with almost no opposition. Lawmakers seemly brought back happy hour as a post-pandemic recovery tool to help the struggling restaurant and bar industry in Indiana.

If Holcomb signs the bill, happy hour will once again be legal in Indiana on July 1.

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