Steph Snider seated a table-full of people at her Kingfisher restaurant on a Sunday several months ago and asked for their drink order.

Multiple people in the party desired an alcoholic beverage, but Snider had to inform them she was unable to do so due to the current law in Kingfisher County.

Instead of changing their orders, the group left.

The Shed Grill & Bar not only missed out on a potentially sizable drink ticket, but also a large dinner order as well.

The incident is not an isolated one for the Snider family and other restaurateurs in Kingfisher County.

That’s why they’ve urged citizens to vote “yes” on a pair of questions being put forth to voters this Tuesday.

One, which will benefit bars, restaurants and golf courses, is the liquor by the drink proposition.

The other will allow retail spirits licensees, such as liquor stores, to be open on Sundays and holidays, excluding Christmas.

Why election is necessary

In November 2016, Oklahoma voters approved State Question 792, which updated state liquor laws that dated back to the Prohibition era. Its passage gave grocery and convenience storesthe ability to sell wine and strong-point beer (up to 8.9 percent alcohol by volume) beginning Oct. 1, 2018.

However, it had unintended consequences in some counties, including Kingfisher County, that still had local laws on the books banning Sunday alcohol sales.

State law defines lowpoint beer as nonalcoholic, meaning restaurants previously could still serve beer on Sunday and holidays without violating the county ban.

But when the state question went into effect, beer companies phased out sales of low-point beer across Oklahoma and only sold beer with the higher content of alcohol.

That beer fell under the county ban, leaving bars, restaurants and golf courses, with an inability to offer what is now referred to as liquor by the drink on Sunday.

A number of retail liquor package stores were against the passage of SQ 792 for a number of reasons. Their inability, due to state law, to open Sundays was one of them.

Then-Gov. Mary Fallin in 2017 signed a bill to allow such stores to open Sundays on a county-option basis.

In December 2019, Kingfisher County commissioners approved two questions to be put on Tuesday’s ballot to address both issues.

Retail Liquor Sales

This measure gives the likes of Sandra Kloeppel, owner of B&B Liquor in Kingfisher, the opportunity to compete not only with liquor stores in the surrounding counties, but also grocery and convenience stores inside the county who are currently able to sell on Sundays.

“I’m in favor (of voting yes) because if other counties around us are allowed to do it, then, yes, I want that opportunity,” Kloeppel said. “I want that chance if the rest of them have it.”

Places like United and Walmart in Kingfisher are allowed to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays.

“But I can’t, because I have to be closed,” Kloeppel pointed out.

However, she added, the law’s passage doesn’t guarantee she’ll open her doors the first day of the week.

“We want the option,” she said. “But, also, if there’s no call for us to be open, we’re not going to do it.”

Kingfisher County is one of seven voting on this measure in the state. It’s joined by Oklahoma, Cleveland, Creek, Muskogee, Tulsa and Washington counties.

Liquor by the Drink

Margo Sigl is one of the owners and operators of the Hitchin’ Post on Kingfisher’s east side.

Her bar wasn’t typically open on Sundays except for special occasions.

Some of those occasions - like the Thunder Rally poker run for motorcycles in April - now aren’t an option.

“I noticed last year during the rally that we didn’t have near the motorcycle traffic we would usually have,” Sigl said.

She attributed it to Kingfisher’s inability to serve alcohol.

“We missed out on a lot of business. The entire town did because a lot of people who normally would didn’t even come here,” Sigl said, noting the rally generally brings 600 to 1,000 bikers.

Sigl said there are other, smaller rallies and opportunities such as big football games on Sundays during which she’d like to open her bar.

“Those things aren’t our bread and butter, but they are another opportunity for us to introduce people to our bar and to Kingfisher.”

The Kingfisher Golf Course was hit hard when SQ 792 went into effect.

Golf courses and marinas across the state were unable to sell alcohol on Sundays.

“That first six months, my sales were down $8,000,” said Gary Wilson, the club pro. “We were blindsided when it happened.”

A lot of the hit was alleviated in April 2019 when Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 728 that had an emergency clause that went into effect immediately. It gave the likes of golf courses the right to sell alcoholic beverages to take onto the course.

However, golf course patrons aren’t allowed to drink inside the clubhouse on Sundays.

“Although it’s not as bad as it was, I think we’re still losing revenue mainly because people like to come in here, sit down, have a drink and talk about their round,” Wilson said. “Now when a lot of them are finished golfing, they just leave.”

The impact of a lack of liquor sales on Sunday prompted one restaurant here to shut down for the day.

“We decided to close Sundays because of the liquor laws,” said Scott Osborn, manager of STACK Grill.

“But if the new law does pass, we definitely will revisit opening on Sundays again.”

Snider said her family’s restaurant is down $400-$500 in alcohol sales each Sunday as compared to before the law went into effect.

“Sunday was our second-busiest day of the week behind Friday,” she said. “That really begins to add up over the course of a month and a year.”

Potential patrons have reacted negatively toward her restaurant when told they can’t serve on Sundays, Snider said.

“People get irritated,” she said, mentioning large groups who are in town for softball or baseball tournaments and need a place to eat and unwind between games. “They think it’s a backwards policy and we’ve even gotten some negative reviews online because of it.”

She stressed that her restaurant isn’t just losing, for example, a $20 alcohol sale at an average table.

Snider said now patrons are bypassing restaurants in Kingfisher County altogether.

“A lot of people want to sit down and have a drink with their meal,” she said. “Now they’ll just go out of town to eat.”

That means places like The Shed lose an entire ticket sale. For bigger groups, that’s $100 and more.

Snider said that has affected how her restaurant staff on Sundays.

“It affects a lot of people here,” she said.

And it affects people countywide, she offered.

“When people drive past us to go out of town, those taxes aren’t coming back to our town,” she said.

Added Wilson: “It’s a big impact to the city and county sales tax numbers,” he said. “People are just going out of town. We want to keep them here…keep those tax dollars here. That’s why we need people to get out and vote ‘yes.’”