As written here before, residency requirements can be a significant (or at least annoying) hurdle to obtaining a liquor license in Maryland. Nearly every county requires that at least one of the licensees for any establishment to have been a resident of that county for some defined period prior to the issuance of the license […]
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Judge Rules Non-Citizens Should be Able to Hold Liquor Licenses
In nearly every county in Maryland, being a non-US citizen is a bar to holding a liquor license. A judge in Anne Arundel County, however, recently ruled that such laws are discriminatory and ordered the county liquor board to reconsider a liquor license application submitted by a non-citizen permanent resident. Upon such reconsideration the board […]
Read more...Planning a Brewery? Think Zoning Zoning Zoning
Have you ever wondered why Annapolis, our state’s fair capital city, does not have any craft breweries? After all, Frederick and Baltimore are home to multiple world class craft beer producers. Well, the answer is both simple and amazing: the zoning codes of the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County do not include brewing […]
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Things To Consider Before Signing a Restaurant Lease: Liquor Licensing
Restaurants have a notoriously high failure rate and, for many restaurants, their fate is sealed at the time they sign their lease. If a restaurateur is not careful, she can be saddled with lease terms that make the restaurant’s success even harder than it need be. It is absolutely critical to identify those lease terms […]
Read more...2015 Legislative Session Will Again Target Liquor License Residency Requirements
Readers of this blog may remember efforts that our principal, Sean Morris, engaged in last year to revise Montgomery County’s requirement that all liquor license applications include at least one individual who has been a resident of the County for two years or more. (You can read more here). That legislation, which would have permitted […]
Read more...Can Montgomery County’s Liquor Control System Be Saved?
For the past year, the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control’s dispensary system, which requires every keg, can, or bottle of alcohol sold within the county to be purchased from the County itself — either directly or indirectly — has been under fire. The State Comptroller, Peter Franchot, a county native and the state’s chief […]
Read more...Liquor License Provisions in “Fast Casual” Restaurant Leases
The Washington Post has an article today on the proliferation of Chipotle-inspired “fast casual” restaurants that allow customers to customize their meals with a variety of fresh ingredients. The article notes that, while more traditional fast food establishments (think McDonalds or Wendy’s or Taco) are struggling to find new opportunities for growth, fast casual restaurants are booming. […]
Read more...Restaurants Now Exempt from Adams Morgan Liquor License Moratorium
For the first time in five years, the District of Columbia will begin issuing in new liquor licenses to restaurants in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the city. Until now, there had been a moratorium on the issuance of new such licenses, leaving aspiring restaurateurs with no choice but to identify a party willing to […]
Read more...DC Regulators Shut Down Booze Delivery Startup
In a world where it seems every other startup wants to be known as the “Uber for _______,” call these companies the “Ubers for booze.” Tap an app on your phone, and have beer, wine or liquor delivered to your door by the likes of Ultra, Klink, and new entrant BrewDrop, which just launched in […]
Read more...New Maryland Laws Loosen Distribution Rules for Craft Beer and Small Breweries
Several new laws were passed in the recent Maryland legislative session that affect how small brewers may sell their products to consumers in the state. Generally speaking, sales of alcoholic beverages in the United States are funneled through a “three tier” system: producers (i.e. brewers, winemakers, and distillers) sell to wholesalers; wholesalers sell to retailers; […]
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