{"id":144602,"date":"2026-02-05T11:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144602\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:11:06","slug":"fort-lauderdale-bans-bar-hopping-with-open-alcohol-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144602\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale bans bar hopping with open alcohol containers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going out to drink in Fort Lauderdale\u2019s entertainment districts will look a bit different now.<\/p>\n

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission approved an ordinance Tuesday evening that bans the consumption of alcohol in open containers on the street and bans outdoor alcohol sales in the city\u2019s entertainment districts, including on Himmarshee Street.<\/p>\n

That means people can longer roam the streets carrying alcoholic drinks.<\/p>\n

The rule changes come after city commissioners were concerned by two shootings that occurred recently near nightlife spots downtown and on the beach.<\/p>\n

Originally, the commission considered changing the rules to end alcohol sales at 2 a.m. instead of 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, which would force bars to close two hours earlier than they currently do on weekends. But Fort Lauderdale bar owners pushed back on the idea<\/a>, arguing that closing at 2 a.m. would severely hurt their businesses.<\/p>\n

Bar owners and commissioners agreed it was a better idea to end the practice of allowing people to walk around drinking alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop the people who can bring a cheap bottle of booze from home, tailgate in city garages, and then pour it into a plastic cup and walk up and down the street causing mischief,\u201d said bar owner Steve Burke at the Jan. 20 meeting.<\/p>\n

Five people partying in Himmarshee Village were injured in a shooting on Dec. 28, and a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed at Beach Place on New Year\u2019s Eve, the Sun Sentinel reported.<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale has five Special Entertainment Districts affected by the new rules, according to city documents:<\/p>\n

Himmarshee Village: Multiple businesses along Himmarshee Street between SW 2nd Avenue and SW 4th Avenue<\/p>\n

Beach Place: A bar, restaurant, hotel and shopping complex at 17 S Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard<\/p>\n

Historic Brickell: Includes two bars, The Wharf Fort Lauderdale and Society Las Olas<\/p>\n

McCrory Building: Multiple businesses located within W Las Olas Boulevard, SE 2nd Street, S Andrews Avenue and SW 1st Avenue<\/p>\n

Toomey: Multiple businesses within E Las Olas Boulevard, Poinsettia Street, S Atlantic Boulevard and S State Road A1A<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s final vote on the new rules was unanimous, though one member of the public spoke up against the idea. Francois Chidiac, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale, told the commissioners that being able to hop from bar to bar with a drink was part of Fort Lauderdale\u2019s nightlife charm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that just made the city and made the flow of how you go out, how you entertain yourself for a night out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s very special for nightlife that you don\u2019t find anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though they disagreed on the topic, Chidiac\u2019s comments made Mayor Dean Trantalis chuckle. \u201cI wanna party with you,\u201d Trantalis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going out to drink in Fort Lauderdale\u2019s entertainment districts will look a bit different now. The Fort Lauderdale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[62001,53606,8447,70076,70077,70075,249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-144602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-alcohol-sales","9":"tag-beach-place","10":"tag-city-commissioners","11":"tag-consumption-of-alcohol","12":"tag-drinking-alcohol","13":"tag-entertainment-districts","14":"tag-fort-lauderdale","15":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","16":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}