Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has been eight years since the Buffalo Bills had a start kickoff time at 9:30 a.m. ET in Western New York, as the team gets set to play overseas this coming Sunday in London, England against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
While Bills fans do have the option of watching their favorite football team from the comforts of their own home on the NFL Network and also WUTV FOX 29 in Buffalo, there will be many members of "Bills Mafia" looking to make the most of their Sunday morning and find a local establishment to catch all the action.
For many local bar and restaurant owners in Western New York, Week 5 of the 2023 Bills season has been circled on their calendars for quite some time.
"Ever since they announced it, we were planning on trying to figure out how we were going to open, what we're going to serve, and how we're going to get a liquor license early," said Chris Ring from the Rec Room on Chippewa in Downtown Buffalo. "Early in the season it's been on our radar, but we're checking all the boxes, and we'll be ready to go for the game this Sunday."
"Basically the day the schedule came out," said Keith Morgan, owner of the Tavern at Windsor Park in Williamsville. "We decided that now that the law had changed to allow us to apply for a license up to 12 times a year to open early on a Sunday, we would take advantage of it and open up, show the game, have some breakfast items available for people to eat, and just have a good time."
As for co-owner of the Banshee Irish Pub in Buffalo, Conor Hawkins, he was hoping to be able to head back home to Ireland and then go to London for the game. However, those plans quickly changed when he saw the higher prices for tickets to attend.
"It's a big kind of party day that we are looking forward to, because the Banshee Irish Pub, we're a big, big soccer bar. To have all the soccer going on and the Bills going on at the same time, it just promises to be a full house, and it's an exciting day," said Hawkins.
Under New York law, bars and restaurants in the state are not allowed to sell alcohol before 10 a.m. ET, unless business owners have filed for a special permit to be able to do so for a specific event at a cost of $35. The state allows businesses 12 opportunities each year to file for such permits, and it is up to the State Liquor Authority to issue these permits if a business qualifies.
Under normal circumstances, businesses have 14 days notice time to file and apply for these special early liquor licenses, and the deadline before Sunday's game had passed as of Tuesday. However, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday night via X, formerly known as Twitter, that the State Liquor Authority has been directed to extend the deadline for bars and restaurants to submit for special permits.
"We're anxious to get the approval from the State Liquor Authority this week, saying we can serve early. Regardless, we're gonna be open at 8 a.m. no matter what," Ring said. "If we can't serve until 10 a.m., booze, we won't serve until 10 a.m. But if we get that exemption, obviously we'll be serving beer, wine, liquor, at 8 a.m."
Hawkins is in a similar situation to Ring, as he says he got an email from his lawyer, saying the state has been inundated with requests, and they're hoping to try and get them all out. However, it may be a situation where not every business is guaranteed to be granted the permit.
"Right now, for me, it's just fingers crossed and hopefully we make the cut," Hawkins said. "I really do want to make the cut, because I think people are just excited. I can imagine everybody coming down here with their Bills gear and their soccer gear, and getting here early. It's just a good atmosphere about it obviously with the Bills doing so well and some of the soccer teams doing so well. It's just a feel good factor right now."
As for Morgan, he was well-prepared for Sunday morning's outing, as he applied for his special permit months ago and was already been granted his permit to sell liquor early back in August.
While Morgan is set to legally serve customers bright and early Sunday morning for the Bills game in London, he's also hosting a special religious service in-house at the Tavern at Windsor Park more than an hour before kickoff.
"We're offering the church service first, and then we'll be opening the bar at 8:30 a.m.," Morgan said. "I've told my regulars about it, and then we've done some Facebook and other advertising through social media, both myself at the Tavern here and Pastor Steve [Biegner] at his church (St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Eggertsville). Other than that, it's getting my staff to be willing to come in early and crawl out of bed a little bit earlier. That's the biggest thing, and also lining up reservations. Normally we don't require reservations to come in, but for this event we are."
So how many people does Morgan expect to be on-hand for Sunday's game?
"It really depends, but I'm thinking I'm gonna max out at maybe 100-125," he said. "I've already got 80 reservations, and they're going quick. My bars are already full, my high tops are already full, and two of my dining rooms are already full."
As for Hawkins, he's also taking reservations at the Banshee Irish Pub, and is expecting about 200 people to be in attendance come Sunday.
"We're used to big crowds on a Sunday, which kind of leads into a Bills game in the afternoon. But all the soccer guys are coming in who support Liverpool, Spurs or Newcastle. They're all Buffalo guys, so they're all Buffalo Bills fans, so they'll have them all here for it," Hawkins said. "We've been planning, we've put in our application in for an early license, and hopefully we're going to be able to serve mimosas and bloody marys from 8 a.m. that day. We've got extra bar staff on, extra servers on, because obviously with a big, massive crowd like that, to have the restaurant open and doing table service, it's gonna be pretty tough. So we're planning on doing a breakfast buffet that's going to be a little bit easier on our kitchen and a little bit easier on our servers."
Ring is very familiar with Buffalonians and Western New Yorkers coming out early for other events that sports fans are keenly invested in. Anything that has an early start time and is a big event of a national or international scale, people are willing to rally behind the movement and show their support.
"Whether it's world soccer, football, hockey, Olympic Games, things like that, a lot of the bars that specialize in sporting activities and things like that definitely see an increase in business when they open their doors for those sorts of events," Ring said.
At Rec Room, they, too, are taking reservations for Sunday morning's game in London, and there will also be no cover charge for any of the other bars along Chippewa.
"We're actually asking guests to pre-order their breakfast sandwiches or breakfast tacos, just to get an idea of how many people are coming early, because we don't want anybody waiting for their food," Ring detailed. "So yeah, RecRoomBuffalo.com, they can go there, contact us and make the reservation. We open at 8 a.m. for the game, and we should be able to serve liquor. We should get our approval in the next day or so from when we open the doors until the end of the game."
So what else is in store come Sunday morning for patrons of these businesses?
Tavern at Windsor Park: "We'll be serving the breakfast items, the two breakfast items - a plated scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and home fries plate or a breakfast sandwich - from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.," Morgan said. "At 11 a.m., we will resume our regular menu for people that decided they didn't want to eat early or whatever. We have a full bar, 18 TVs with the games on, everything you could possibly need."
Banshee Irish Pub: "We've got a special bar package open that includes the breakfast buffet. We always do a bar package, a restaurant deal which includes halftime buffet during the Bills games, and they go down very, very well," Hawkins said. "Being a soccer bar here, we have 20 TVs, so we're able to have the Bills focused, and we'll be able to be showing some soccer also. But we'll have the sound on for the Bills game, we've got a pretty good sound system that we can project all around the restaurant and patio that will play the Bills game. So it'll be full audio too."