How the 3 am rule is hurting the Grove

I was at a Grove restaurant recently and I was talking with the manager, the subject of 3 am vs 5 am came up, just out of the blue, we were casually talking.

I was told how the 3 am rule has hurt this one particular place and probably all the others -- it seems that many concierges from hotels on South Beach like the Loews and W and The Palm, were sending bus loads of tourists here. That is how it was said to me, "bus loads," I don't know if that's an expression or if they literally filled buses and sent crowds here in random groups or from conventions. But I was told that one particular place would receive 300 to 400 guests a night this way.

Now the concierges won't send the people, because these bus loads of tourists go out late-- 11 pm or midnight or 1 am and they do not want to come here, only to have to return a couple of hours later. The tourists want to be out all night.

Also, the party promoters bypass the Grove now. One place lost three party promoters, not three parties, three promoters and their business because they want things to start at 1 am go for a decent period of time, not end two hours later.

One place served breakfast at 5 am and many of the partiers from the night before would have big breakfasts and end the night that way. That breakfast service has stopped. So has the large crowd who would eat pizza after clubbing, that business dried up by 80%.

Many people, go home after work, or in the case of tourists, go back to their hotel rooms after a day at the beach, they take naps and they hit the streets after 11 pm. They want to be out all night. Not have a curfew. And this is just one way that the 3 am law has hurt Coconut Grove businesses. Businesses in the Grove lose thousands of dollars a month this way.