GULF SHORES, Ala. — The Gulf Shores City Council was set to decide in its meeting Monday whether to allow beer sales at the movie theater in Pelican Place, but company officials notified the city on June 5 it was withdrawing the request.

The Islander was notified of Cobb's withdrawal in a Thursday morning from the city of Gulf Shores.

Representatives with Cobb Theater met with the council on May 20 during a work session to ask them to consider granting an ABC liquor license to sell beer and wine to patrons.

Because the upcoming Memorial Day holiday was the next Monday and possible regular meeting, Gulf Shores scheduled a regular council meeting to immediately follow the work session. Cobb representatives hoped to get a vote on the license on May 20.

But council members were reluctant to do so without doing further study of selling beer in a theater environment.

“You don’t go into a movie with children and sit there and have people sit around with a drink,” Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Doughty said. “I could see them buying them in a dark theater and passing them up and down the row. I know y’all would like it sooner versus later, but there are some things we need to think about and double check in between.”

Councilman Joe Garris wasn’t necessary against it, but he didn’t want to vote right away on the issue.

“Normally we have a COW meeting and have a week to think about it and do a little research,” Garris said. “We’ve got two council members missing with opinions and what I would like to see y’all say is let’s do it the first council meeting in June.”

Mayor Robert Craft and Councilman Phillip Harris were not present. Having the vote right away, Garris said, might not end the way the representatives were hoping.

“If you want a vote today we can give you one, but from what I’m hearing you won’t like the vote that you get,” Garris said.

Councilman Steve Jones questioned if giving an OK for beer and wine in the theater would go against the image Gulf Shores is trying to project to potential visitors.

“I don’t think any of us have experienced a movie theater where you had alcohol you could purchase,” Jones said. “I think our concerns are based on our recent rash of everything we’ve gone through to define ourselves as family friendly. What are we saying if we approve this license to allow this?”

Ivan Hand, an attorney for Cobb Theaters said the company has alcohol in 13 other theaters around the country and has had no problems with it. He also touted the company’s regulation of alcohol to make sure no one underage is drinking and to monitor for those who may have had too many.

“You are going to come in and show your ID and get beer or wine in specific colored glasses and you’ll also have a wrist band that will notify that this person is 21 years old,” Hand said. “They also hire a client monitor specifically for the movie theater who does nothing but check to make sure the people are compliant.

“Before every feature, before every film we’re going to have a piece up there saying we are concerned about the community, we want this to be a safe environment and we’ll ask for other customers of the business to help us as well to report any signs of underage or overconsumption.”

Cobb Theater Director of Operations Fred Meyers said the company promotes responsible drinking it its venues with alcohol and will do so in Gulf Shores.

“We have done this in multiple cities throughout the country and we understand the concerns,” he said. “The intent here is to allow responsible adults to enjoy a glass of beer or glass of wine during a movie. It’s not to entice people to come for a drinking environment, that’s not what this is about at all.”

Newly hired City Administrator Steve Griffin said he remembers having similar thoughts when alcohol was brought into Evanston, Ill., where he was the community development director.

“At first it was two sides of the theater, one for adults with alcohol, one without, and they limited it to that,” he said. “It went so well that approved it on the other side. There was just not that much problem.

“I had the same skepticism with that community and I went there two or three times and it was just fine. We had it for about a year and literally had no problems.”