No more beer with your cut

The days of having a cold beer while you get your hair cut in Halifax are over… at least for now.

Two local barbershops — Saint Lou’s and Sailor Bup’s, both located downtown — were paid a visit by a Halifax Regional Police officer Wednesday, and informed that they can’t give beer to their patrons without a license.

The owners of both shops say they consulted the government, and sought legal advice. They were led to believe there is no license for barbershops, but that they’d be fine to let patrons have a casual brew with their cut — free of charge.

Mark Peyton, owner of Sailor Bup’s, says anywhere else, there’s no issue.

“You can go into a shop in the states, you can go to a shop in Europe, and sit down, get a shave, and get a glass of whiskey,” he says.

Peyton says he wouldn’t have done it if he though it wasn’t legal.

“If I was told by the liquor commission and I was told by the government of Nova Scotia that it was OK to do, then I was doing it.”

Rob Oxner, owner of Saint Lou’s, tells a similar tale.

“They didn’t say you couldn’t do it,” he says. “I’m sure in their position, they would’ve told us we couldn’t do it. They would know.”

The government’s Alcohol and Gaming Division told News 95.7 that the two owners are correct: there is no licensing for barbershops, or clothing shops. In an email, spokesperson Glenn Friel wrote “Service Nova Scotia only issues liquor licences to places where liquor is an integral part of the business.”

For the police, the issue hedges on a definition of public. They say any place accessible to the public is a public place. Section 78 of Nova Scotia’s Liquor Control Act says without a license, no one can sell liquor, or give it away “at the time of the transfer of any property” — the transfer of property in this case being the cutting of hair.

“It’s one of those grey areas,” says Peyton. “I hate that term and I hate those words together, but at the end of the day, that’s what it is.”

Both Peyton and Oxner say the officer, or officers that visited them were polite, and the police stress that they weren’t there to enforce, but rather to inform. They say they were acting on an anonymous complaint.

The two barbers also agree their businesses won’t be affected.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the haircut, and the atmosphere,” says Oxner.

Oxner will continue to offer his patrons coffee, which was always an option at both shops, while Peyton is filling the void in his beer fridge with the next best thing – non-alcoholic beer.

But he’s the only one drinking it so far.