Demonstrating the critical importance and growing complexity of the legal issues surrounding restaurants, the Washington Lawyer dedicated its September 2016 issue to the intersection of the restaurant business and the law. The cover story was entitled Behind the Kitchen Door and featured interviews with local restaurateurs, including celebrity chef Mike Isabella, and our founder, Sean Morris. […]
Read more...Category: Alcoholic Beverage Law
Hooters Waves White Flag: Will Voluntarily Close Rather than Face Revocation
There are some battles that are just not worth fighting, apparently. For the Rockville, Maryland Hooters restaurant that was charged with overserving the drunk driver who killed Montgomery County police officer Noah Leotta late last year, that would include the battle to save their liquor license. The restaurant faced a show cause hearing before the […]
Read more...How a Glitch in Local Liquor License Laws is Hurting Fast Casual Restaurants
I’ve written here before about how one of the distinguishing and appealing elements of fast casual restaurants is that, unlike more traditional “fast food” outlets, they often serve alcohol. Most often, however, these restaurants do not have a full bar and only want to serve beer and wine. That more limited offering can make things […]
Read more...Last Call for Georgetown Liquor License Moratorium
Starting next week, for the first time in 27 years, restaurants in Georgetown will be able to apply for new liquor licenses. The District of Columbia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control today voted not to extend its decades-old moratorium on liquor licenses for restaurants, which had been set to expire on April 8. The moratorium was instituted in […]
Read more...Is The End Near for Montgomery County’s Liquor Monopoly?
Montgomery County, our home jurisdiction, is the only county in the state of Maryland that exerts complete control over the distribution of alcoholic beverages. With few exceptions, every pint of beer, glass of wine, and drop of spirits consumed in the county passes through the hands of the County government on its way from producer to […]
Read more...Maryland Craft Beer Industry Continues to Boom
If anyone thinks craft beer is in a bubble or is going to slow down any time soon, perhaps they should look to what is going on here in Maryland, where growth not only appears strong — but strengthening. Just in the past week we’ve seen: A new craft brewery, 7 Locks Brewing, begin production […]
Read more...Difficulty Obtaining a Liquor License Among Things that Doomed Taco Bell’s Fast Casual Concept
Taco Bell thought its concept — U.S. Taco Co. — could take on Chipotle and, failing that, at least give it a toe-hold in the rapidly growing fast casual dining market. But, after just one year of being open in Huntington Beach, California, its first and only outpost has closed. Among the problems facing the […]
Read more...Medical Marijuana Entrepreneurs May Have to Wait for Zoning Laws to Catch Up
Baltimore County recently became the first jurisdiction in Maryland to enact comprehensive zoning rules for medical marijuana facilities. Under zoning laws, uses are generally permitted rather than prohibited. That is to say, a business owners may only engage in uses that are specifically permitted in a given zone and a use that is not permitted is, for […]
Read more...DC Restaurant Owners Learn the Hard Way How Important a “Very Good Lease” Is.
A dispute with its landlord has caused the abrupt closure of a popular Columbia Heights restaurant. Apparently, the dispute was brought to a head when the landlord refused to sign off on the restaurant’s liquor license application, which is a requirement under DC law. Now the parties have sued (and counter-sued) each other in DC […]
Read more...Client Spotlight: Tony Conte and Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana
Permit us a moment to bask in the good fortune of one of our clients and share with you this terrific piece on Tony Conte and Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, as recently featured in the Washingtonian. We are also pleased to report that Inferno’s liquor license application was approved by Montgomery County this morning, so you’ll be able […]
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