ROCK HILL - Kirk Behring was right where he likes to be on a football Sunday: at a nearby restaurant, watching games on big-screen TVs, a Coors Light in his hand.
The drought is over.
"You have no idea," said Behring, 34, kicking back at Chili's in Rock Hill on Sunday afternoon.
It's the first time since moving from New Jersey to Rock Hill a year ago that he was able to spend a Sunday this way in his new hometown.
City restaurants served liquor for the first time Sunday, thanks to residents voting earlier this month to lift the law that prohibited alcohol sales on Sundays.
"When I first moved down here, it was shocking to learn I had to spend Super Bowl Sunday in the house," said Behring.
"Now they're opening up."
Managers at eateries around the city said they enjoyed business like never before on a non-holiday Sunday. Patrons like Dawn Collins, 35, previously left town for Pineville or Charlotte for Sunday outings.
This past Sunday, though, she enjoyed a beer at the Rock Hill Outback Steakhouse.
"It's nice to stay in town," said Collins, who grew up in Rock Hill. "You feel more at home here.
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Jeff Brown, managing partner at Outback, noticed customers coming in after the Carolina Panthers played in Charlotte -- for the first time.
"People are stopping here closer to home, rather than stay in Charlotte" post-game, said Brown, who had five more servers working Sunday.
That was the case at the Cactus Creek restaurant, where two customers enjoyed burgers and beers at the bar after leaving the Panthers game in the third quarter to get out of the wind and cold.
"We think it's marvelous," said Anne, who wouldn't give her last name. "We're firm believers in leaving our sales tax dollars in the state we live in."
Dilip Patel, general manager of the Microtel Inn Suites in Rock Hill, thinks serving alcohol on Sundays will translate into more hotel business, too.
Interstate 77 travelers heading north to Pennsylvania, or south to Florida, often pull over to Rock Hill for an overnight rest stop -- then leave just as quickly when they realize they can't get a drink with dinner at a restaurant if it's Sunday.
Now they can.
"What a great economic impact this will be for our community," Patel said.
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