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 […]
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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 […]
Read more...Things To Consider Before Signing a Restaurant Lease: Exclusive Use Provisions
Most well-negotiated restaurant leases contain a provision that states the tenant has exclusive rights to sell a certain style of food – e.g. that tenant will be the only one in the shopping center who can sell fast casual Mexican or sit-down Mediterranean or carry-out Chinese. If you do not have an exclusivity provision, there […]
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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 […]
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Montgomery County Offering New Services to Aspiring Restaurateurs and Food Entrepreneurs
If you have plans to open a restaurant or dream of starting a food-related business, Montgomery County has two new resources for you. First, the Department of Permitting Services has launched a program called “Recipes for Success” that is aimed at assisting aspiring restaurateurs to navigate the County’s permitting system. To open a restaurant in […]
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 […]
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