In Search of a Wine Bar: Virgina May Loosen Up a Little
I’ve posted previously about Virginia’s alcohol-to-food sales ratio that says that 45% of an establishment’s sales must come from food. The law has the unfortunate side effect of eliminating the possibility of a full-blown wine bar opening up in Virginia.
Another problem facing owners is that the Arlington crowd has cast aside rail drinks in favor of Patron and Grey Goose. Premium liquors are great sales for restaurants who charge top-dollar for it. The problem is that for every top shelf martini they sell, they need to sell more food to keep the ratio in balance. If they don’t sling more cheeseburgers, they get fined. Good intentions fail.
Rising liquor costs have gotten small bar and restaurant owners to pester the Virgina ABC enough to start a pilot program to re-examine the issue. Washington Business Journal has the story.
To better balance the 45-to-55 food-to-liquor ratio, [Clarendon Grill owner Peter] Pflug and 11 other Virginia restaurant operators have joined ABC’s two-year pilot project to test an alternative way to calculate the ratio for mixed beverage licensees.
It gets better, wait for it…
Rather than comparing the percentage of food sales to mixed-beverage sales, the pilot is based on alcohol volume. Participating licensees can sell $350 of food per one gallon of alcohol bought from ABC. Beer and wine aren’t included in either equation.
Hey, that’s some help. While I doubt that Virginia will pass legislation that will effectively legalize “bars” as the rest of the country knows it, it looks like the grip might come loose just a little. Leaving wine sales out of the food-to-liquor calculation allows an establishment to serve a few glasses of wine to a customer without having to push a chain-restaurant menu full of overpriced Chicken Fingers (I like mine with buffalo sauce). Before you know it, Virginians, you may have a wine bar opening up down the street.
Link to Washington Business Journal article.
