The Morris Law Firm’s Founder Featured in the Washington Lawyer’s Issue on Restaurant Law

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. […]

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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 […]

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The Four Relationships that Can Make or Break Your Restaurant Business

The restaurant business, like almost all businesses, is about relationships. And, of course, the most important one you will have is with your customers. If you don’t preserve that relationship, you won’t have a business for very long. But there are other relationships that must be protected just as jealously, because if any of them […]

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Don’t Even Think About Buying a Restaurant Without Answering These Four Questions.

For generations, owning and operating a restaurant has been a common dream for would-be entrepreneurs. Unlike many other businesses, most of us think we understand how restaurants operate (we all eat at restaurants, don’t we?), and there is a certain charm and allure to the idea of welcoming our friends and neighbors to a place […]

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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 […]

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12 Questions to Ask (and Answer) Before Signing Your Restaurant Lease

As I’ve written here before, perhaps the document that will have the greatest impact on the success of your restaurant will be your lease. It sets the terms of your relationship with your landlord, governs the manner in which you may use your space, and determines what you must pay – each and every month […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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