City of Madison approves first arts and entertainment district | News

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It will encompass Town Madison, including restaurants and Toyota Field

The city of Madison is opening its first “arts and entertainment” district. The booming Town Madison will soon be a place to enjoy a bite to eat, grab a drink, and walk around with an open container.

The new district is similar to the five arts and entertainment districts in Huntsville, where people can walk around with a purple cup. Madison’s ordinance describes the new cup as a “Kelly green” color, which Mayor Paul Finley said is an homage to the city’s “plant your roots” slogan.

“To be the first Madison entertainment district is huge,” said Lindsey Knupp, the executive vice president of the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

There’s nothing quite like enjoying a beer at the ballpark. Now, people in Madison can take their beer from Toyota Field and enjoy everything Town Madison has to offer.

“Come into the ballpark, you can grab a drink, grab a green cup, watch a few innings of a game, go to dinner, come back,” said Knupp.

Sprawling more than 120 acres, Madison’s new arts and entertainment district has more than 10 restaurants already open, and six more coming soon.

“If you drive through here you look around, and I feel like there’s a new restaurant, a new business opening up every day,” said Knupp.

“It’s great getting out here now, kind of before everything that’s going on. You know, getting set up and getting established in this area with how much it’s growing over the next six months to a year,” said Tyler Berger, general manager at Prohibition.

Prohibition is one of the newest restaurants in the area. Soon, people will be able to grab a drink in a green cup and bar hop from Prohibition to J Alexanders.

“Any kind of business is going to help generate sales, and like I said, whether it’s just a quick beer in a cup to go, or you know like I said you come in and eat, maybe you weren’t planning on eating and then you’re gonna add on and continue to grow by just adding more drinks,” said Berger.

Mayor Paul Finley said Madison has wanted an entertainment district for a while, but they needed a hub with at least four businesses with alcohol licenses to qualify.

“We’ve always known Town Madison, it was probably going to be our first entertainment district, and it’s exciting to see that come to fruition now,” said Finley.

The Town Madison entertainment district now goes back to the ABC board for final approval. The mayor expects the entertainment district to open early 2023.