Nampa, Idaho » Nampa restaurant and bar owners are excited to start serving hard liquor on Sundays, hoping booze sales will boost their bottom lines.

Restaurants and bars can start serving liquor by the drink in Idaho's second-biggest city Sunday. The Nampa City Council voted 3-2 to lift a ban on Sunday by-the-drink sales in December.

Bar and restaurant owners say the new law will keep customers from migrating to Boise to drink and dine and draw new customers interested in having gin, vodka or a scotch with lunch or dinner. Some council members also said allowing liquor sales will make the city more attractive to major restaurant chains.

B.J. McDougal, owner of Winger's Grill and Bar in Nampa, said many would-be customers from a hotel nearby have gone to Meridian or other neighboring counties on Sundays to get liquor with their meals. He believes the new law will boost food sales as well.

"In this economy we'll take anything we can get," Aaron Vogel, owner of Elliott's Sports Pub and Grill, told the Idaho Press-Tribune .

But Linda Jeanes, owner of Hong Kong Restaurant and Lounge, said the law likely won't affect her sales because most of her Sunday customers are religious.

Council members opposed to the new law said it's irresponsible to ease rules on liquor sales without a state-led effort to toughen drunken driving laws. Nampa Police Chief Bill Augsburger has said research on other Idaho cities that lifted Sunday liquor sales bans shows no increase in DUI cases.

Other cities that have recently approved Sunday by-the-drink liquor sales include Burley in May, and Hailey in November 2008. Ken Burgess, a state lobbyist for the Idaho Licensed Beverage Association, said most major cities in Idaho already allow such sales.

Canyon County approved Sunday liquor sales by the bottle at state-run and contract stores in 2008. Statewide, 28 of 44 Idaho counties have voted to allow booze sales on Sundays since the Legislature approved such sales in 2004.