Commercial leases, like most contracts, are subject to interpretation. Clauses and terms that may seem clear at the time they are drafted can later become ambiguous, or subject to more than one understanding, especially when words on paper become applied to real life situations. Or the terms may be unclear on their face, and such […]
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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 […]
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...Lawsuit: DC Waterfront Developers Trying to Drive Us Out of Business
In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the owners of two fish markets and a seafood deli located at the Maine Avenue waterfront in Southwest Washington, DC, have sued the developers of the massive “Wharf” project for violating their lease and trying to drive them out of business. As expected the lawsuit has gotten significant media attention, […]
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 […]
Read more...New Liquor License Residency Requirements in Prince George’s County
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 […]
Read more...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 […]
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