So he was stunned to learn that, according to Pinellas County, those early-morning alcohol sales have been illegal on days other than Monday.

It turns out that when county commissioners relaxed Sunday morning blue laws last year, they also banned packaged sales of beer and wine by bars after 12:01 a.m.

That was news to Davis, who only found out about the prohibition in March from another bar owner. Even some commissioners acknowledge they were not aware their vote to allow earlier Sunday alcohol sales also changed the hours of package sales for bars.

``I just think we didn't know we were doing this other thing,'' Commission Chairwoman Susan Latvala said at a recent board meeting.

Commissioner John Morroni said last week: ``I think we only thought that we were changing the opening hours.''

Morroni, though, noted he and his colleagues did agree on the need for uniformity on when alcohol can and cannot be sold within the county and its 24 municipalities.

The county plans to notify at least 650 bars throughout Pinellas, possibly this week, that packaged sales must cease after midnight - to the chagrin of bar owners such as Davis.

``Package sales after 12 o'clock is what a lot of these small bars have been surviving on,'' he said. ``Bars are just having trouble making it these days, drunk driving laws and so forth. It's just getting to be a hard business.''

County attorneys counter that bars in unincorporated Pinellas have never been allowed to sell packaged beer or wine after midnight - except for the first two hours of Monday morning.

``The reality is the industry interpreted the language to allow sales until 2 a.m. every day of the week,'' said Jim Bennett, chief assistant county attorney. ``But that is not what the ordinance allowed at all.''

Although the law has banned package stores from selling alcohol after midnight, a ``curious,'' longstanding exception allowed package sales by bars between 12:01 a.m. and 2 a.m. Monday, Bennett said.

Commissioners eliminated that exception in October, when they loosened the blue law to let people to buy alcohol at 11 a.m. on Sundays, rather than having to wait until 1 p.m.

All was quiet until March, when a bar owner in Seminole appeared before commissioners and complained that he was abiding by the after-midnight prohibition on packaged sales but that some of his competitors were not.

The sheriff's office responded the next day by sending enforcement notices to a select few bar owners - about 30 of them - said sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen. The notices informed the businesses about the prohibition and warned that they could face a criminal misdemeanor citation if found in violation.

Some griped to the county about being singled out, since other bar owners who also sell packaged alcohol after midnight did not get a notice.

``I am now alarmed [that] as a business owner of 38 years ... that I must close my business at 11:59 p.m.,'' David Mamber Jr., owner of Dave's Aqua Lounge on Gandy Boulevard in unincorporated St. Petersburg, wrote to Morroni.

Other bar owners and patrons called and sent e-mails to commissioners objecting to the after-midnight ban on packaged sales or the ``selective nature'' of the sheriff's mail-out, Bennett said in a memo to commissioners.

Many called between midnight and 3 a.m. on Saturdays with some leaving ``hostile'' or slurred voice mail messages, commissioners' administrative assistants said.

Davis said he never got an enforcement notice, but the bar owner across the street did, which is how he learned of the ``change'' in the packaged sale hours.

Bar patrons who want to buy alcohol to go, or people getting off work after midnight, are his primary early- morning package-sale customers, Davis said.

``Somebody that comes by and gets packaged beer to go because he gets off of work late, why can't he go to his house and drink a beer before he goes to bed?'' he asked. ``That doesn't make sense.''

Davis said his ``biggest gripe'' is that the county never informed the public it was going to curtail the hours of packaged sales at bars when it advertised the change to the blue laws last year.

``I'll guarantee you we would have all been down there at that meeting raising some Cain,'' said Davis, predicting that bar owners will consult with a lawyer about possibly suing the county.

Morroni was unsympathetic, saying many bar owners in unincorporated areas long have violated county regulations against after-midnight package sales on days other than Monday.

``It's been sold illegally for years,'' he said. ``And by them coming to us about opening that whole [blue law] chapter, it brought attention to other things. And now they feel they've been wronged by us making everything consistent.''

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 823-3412.