Photo by thehfo.

Until recently, if you wanted a Bloody Mary with your Sunday brunch, you’d have to wait until 10 a.m. But as of last week, early morning Sunday drinking became a possibility, as restaurants were given the go-ahead to apply to serve alcohol starting at 8 a.m.

The change comes as many do these days — as a means to make more money. As part of the District’s 2012 budget, the D.C. Council extended the hours during which retailers, bars and restaurants would be able to sell booze. Certain retailers would no longer be limited to the 10 p.m. cutoff, but instead enjoy an additional two hours to sell beer, wine and liquor. For bars, restaurants, taverns and nightclubs, Sunday serving hours were shifted back two hours — as of last week, they could petition to start selling alcohol on-premises starting at 8 a.m. on Sundays, as they currently can on Saturdays.

The expanded hours are expected to bring in an additional $2.4 million a year, along with the $2.9 million the city will be taking in from an increase of the tax on booze from nine to 10 percent.

But not just anyone with a liquor license can take advantage of the new hours of operation. According to the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, only license-holders that don’t have a voluntary agreement with an ANC (or have one that doesn’t limit hours) can apply to participate in the expanded hours.

While a bunch of retailers have applied to sell booze until midnight — ABRA says 44 Class A retailers (liquor stores) and 53 Class B retailers (your local beer and wine-selling corner store) have moved to extend their hours since July — only a handful of restaurants, bars, hotels and taverns have similarly asked to start serving booze at 8 a.m. on Sundays. They include Chef Geoff’s Downtown, Madhatter, The Park at 14th, Dynasty Ethiopian, Lucky Bar and The Café Lombardy. More are sure to come, though — ABRA only started accepting such requests last week.

Don’t go running off to any of these places this Sunday at 7:59 a.m., though — each application has to be reviewed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board; The Café Lombardy gets the first crack today.