VOORHEESVILLE — The Voorheesville Planning Commission this week approved a request from Blackbirds Tavern to expand its hours of operation. 

The second-floor meeting room of Voorheesville Village Hall was standing room only on Tuesday with just one of the over half-dozen speakers explicitly speaking in favor of the hours-of-operation expansion — Mayor Rich Straut, who sought to make it clear he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the village of its board of trustees.

Those who spoke against the expansion of hours, nearly all of whom were near neighbors of the tavern, spoke about what they were already experiencing and how those issues — largely quality-of-life concerns like those related to noise — would be exacerbated with the additional hours. 

Ultimately the commission determined that the tavern had the right to ask for the hours’ expansion and agreed it should receive the approval. 

The tavern, which was built by philanthropist and village native Ed Mitzen, is now run by the Druthers Brewing Company, which operates five other restaurants in the Capital Region. 

Like Mitzen’s café across the street, the tavern is named for the Voorheesville school mascot.

The tavern has been open for two months and was not adhering to the hours of operation originally approved by the planning commission — by opening an hour earlier than approved — so Druthers Brewing was brought in to clear up the situation. 

The board ultimately approved the restaurant’s new hours as:

— Monday through Thursday and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.

— Friday and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m.

The commission was told there were no immediate plans to have Blackbirds Tavern open for all the hours Druthers was looking for; rather, the company was looking to keep all its restaurants on the same schedule.