California now allows cocktail and spirit home delivery from your favorite restaurant or distillery

To ease the pain for those who consume spirits and wine~

  1. “Returns of alcoholic beverages”: This change creates the opportunity for retailers to return product to manufacturers like breweries and distilleries. (Manufacturers, however, don’t have to accept returns — that’s up to them to decide.)

  2. “Retail-to-retail transactions”: Off-sale retailers, like liquor stores, can now buy excess product from on-sale retailers, like bars and restaurants, in addition to their usual source, wholesalers. This change is meant to “avoid wasteful inventory spoliation” and to provide an extra income source for on-sale retailers that can’t seat patrons right now.

  3. “Extension of credit”: A current law dictates that wholesalers and manufacturers cannot extend credit to retailers past 30 days. “The Department will not be enforcing these provisions,” the ABC states now, adding that wholesalers and retailers will be allowed to extend credit on their own terms for the time being.

  4. “On-sale retailers exercising off-sale privileges”: Businesses with licenses allowing on-sale privileges (such as restaurants and bars) may temporarily sell alcohol in “manufacturer pre-packaged containers” for off-sale consumption.

  5. “Sales of alcoholic beverages to go”: Here’s the part that’s of interest to the general (21+) public. “Bona fide eating places,” the legal term ascribed to restaurants, may sell beer, wine and pre-mixed cocktails for consumption off-site if they are sold alongside a meal. These drinks don’t need to be packaged by a manufacturer as in No. 4 above, but they must be sold with a “secure lid or cap” like in a sealed bottle or can.

  6. “Off-sale transactions through pass-out windows”: Licensees are allowed to temporarily sell alcohol to people in cars or in a drive-through scenario.

  7. “Hours of operations for retail sales”: The window of time in which these businesses may make these sales to customers has, for some, extended. The ABC is currently allowing these retailers to sell alcohol between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 a.m., though retailers will, of course, operate within their own chosen hours.

  8. “Deliveries to customers”: Currently, if a person wants to purchase, say, a bottle of whiskey from a distillery, the distillery must process the order at the licensed premises. They are also not currently allowed to deliver to consumers away from that licensed premises. Now, craft distillers can not only deliver, they can also accept payment at the point of delivery (up to a max of 2.25 liters per customer per day), including at a “curbside” delivery.

Now, despite this regulatory relief, things won’t change immediately.

It’s up to these businesses to decide if and how to implement these changes. Some, like Santa Cruz’s Venus Spirits and San Francisco’s Seven Stills, have already been preparing for the regulatory ease. Others are still working on the logistics. Stay tuned for what’s next.

As with most things California leads it does not follow

Always look on the bright side of life!

Incredible…some logic emerging within the system!

Got take out from restaurant bar nearby. They filled my Russian Rover growler with Fieldwork hazy IPA and wondered if I’d like an old fashioned to go while I was at it. There’s one thing this ain’t, and that’s prohibition.

I’ve seen some on-sale ‘to-go’ wine menus online. Some are still trying to sell bottles with a 3x mark. I feel for them, but they’re going to want to adjust that in order to generate revenue.

Is it incentive to restaurant/bar owners who have staff coming into work and potentially spreading a virus they otherwise don’t even know they have shut down completely? Feel like this “to go service” isn’t practicing responsible prevention.

I just got 2 emails, one from our favorite local place, Maison Cafe and Market. Suspending curbside and closing doors. Same for Marche Moderne, with their last curbside tonight. As The 19 spins out, things keep evolving.

Be careful here - I got yelled at for suggesting this a week ago.

A week ago, it was a wholly different universe. You’re right in either one though.

Colorado offers this service as well…for at least a week or so now.

[highfive.gif]

Illinois too

Even Oklahoma jumped on this. Except no cocktails. Still have to make those yourself at home. But the local breweries and liquor stores being able to deliver is huge.

I love the idea of cocktail delivery. (Aside from arguments about the epidemic.)

Hopefully, once the cocktail is out of the bottle, it will be too hard to put back in and restaurants will be able to continue to do this in the future. The dining industry is certainly essential for ‘civilization.’