Franconian Beer Message Board

Bier Ohne Grenzen (Beer Without Borders)
Posted by DonS on 2011-01-19 13:50:04
The stringent food+liquor licensing scheme used to be similar in Washington state, known as the "60/40 rule" in which at least 60% of revenues had to come from non-liquor food and soft-drinks. The rules have been loosened a lot since then. It's now possible to get a liquor license if there's a menu with at least four complete meals, served at least five hours a day between 11am and 11pm, five days a week. A full meal is further defined as a main course plus an additional course (appetizer, soup, salad, dessert), and a sandwich or hamburger is _not_ considered a full meal main course item - but an ordinary frozen dinner, heated in a microwave oven, is! Outside of those five hours, some simple food must still be on offer - and that can be simple sandwiches. Pretty simple to set up minimal facilities to meet those rules, and in recent years, that's exactly what has happened. There are no longer any rules at all about actually having to sell any food at all, so it's possible to charge $25 for a frozen food "TV dinner," in order to discourage patrons from overdoing the non-booze "nutrition."