You may have missed the big news last week about a new law signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. I did not, thanks to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Because I’m on its email list, the council sent me the press release. Here’s the headline:
“Virginia Becomes 26th State to Make Cocktails To-Go Permanent in Support of Local Businesses and Consumers.”
Yippee and hooray! This is fantastic news for anyone who loves freedom and alcohol, which by far is the most consumed mind-altering recreational substance in America.
Without a doubt, alcohol can be used responsibly. Flip that coin, however, and you’ll realize its irresponsible consumption often makes the news.
Alcohol is the most frequently abused drug; the most addictive (in terms of the number of addicts); and the one that fuels more violent crime, tragedy and pure idiocy than any other.
People are also reading…
The recent change in the law is quite simple and not at all unique to Virginia. Basically, it extends as “permanent” measures enacted by the General Assembly that temporarily allowed cocktails-to-go during the COVID 19 pandemic. The most recent of those temporary laws was set to expire July 1.
(The term “permanent” is a bit of a misnomer. All laws are subject to change through the legislative process like every other law. But unlike the temporary measures, House Bill 688 sports no defined expiration date.)
Cocktails-to-go were adopted as a temporary “economic relief” initiative when the Virginia restaurant industry was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many eateries couldn’t and didn’t survive that. One was The Roanoker restaurant, a popular (and landmark) eatery for more than 80 years.
The idea was, cocktails-to-go would help ABC-licensed restaurateurs preserve at least some of the revenue they lost during the pandemic, particularly as a result of the shutdowns in 2020.
With COVID-19 mostly behind us, here’s how the Distilled Spirits Council news release presented the newly signed statute:
“Virginia consumers, restaurants, bars and distilleries can all toast to the fact that cocktails to-go are here to stay in Virginia,” said Andy Deloney, senior vice president and head of state public policy at DISCUS.
“During the pandemic, cocktails to-go were a critical source of revenue for many businesses, and now, the increased convenience and stability they offer is permanent. We applaud the Legislature and Governor Youngkin for supporting Virginia businesses and consumers by making cocktails to-go permanent.”
The release noted that, in addition to Virginia and the the District of Columbia, 25 states now sport laws allowing cocktails-to-go without expiration dates. They are: Arizona; Arkansas; Connecticut; Delaware; Hawaii; Indiana; Iowa; Florida; Georgia; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Michigan; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Rhode Island; Texas, Washington; West Virginia; and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, seven other states still have temporary laws that expire at points in the future: California; Colorado; Illinois; Massachusetts; New Jersey; New York; and Vermont.
One Mid-Atlantic state wasn’t on either list — Maryland. (Its legislature allowed a pandemic-inspired cocktails-to-go law to expire in 2023.) And that may be because the Free State has a particularly scandalous history with respect to cocktails-to-go.
You can pretty much sum it up in three words, “drive-through bars.” That beverage service innovation was a hugely popular development in St. Mary’s County — until the mid-1980s, when the rest of Maryland became aware.
A rural jurisdiction southeast of the nation’s capital, St. Mary’s is the Free State’s most southern political subdivision.
Its 354 square miles are wedged between the Patuxent River on the east and the Potomac River on the west. (A boat ride across the latter will land you in Virginia’s Northern Neck.)
The northernmost part of St. Mary’s is about as close to Washington, D.C. as the Floyd County line is to the city of Roanoke.
In 1980, St. Mary’s County’s population was just under 60,000, roughly what Franklin County’s population is today. (Since then, St. Mary’s has nearly doubled in population, as high real estate prices in the Washington metro region pushed many homebuyers into farther-out exurbs.)
In the early 1980s, St. Mary’s had the highest concentration of liquor licenses of any county in Maryland — one for every 320 people. During the same period, Maryland’s most populous county, Montgomery, had one liquor license for every 1,153 residents. (Those numbers and others that will follow came from a 1984 story in the Washington Post.)
Not surprisingly, St. Mary’s County also sported the highest percentage of alcohol-related traffic deaths in Maryland. The number was 75% in St. Mary’s County compared to a state average that hovered around 50%.
A grand jury that investigated discovered even worse numbers. One was a survey of St. Mary’s teenagers — it found 90% drank alcohol “regularly.” (The average for teenagers in Maryland at the time was 70%.)
And much of the problem became focused on St. Mary’s drive-thru bars, which no other jurisdiction in Maryland permitted. Across Maryland, people were shocked those even existed. Quickly, the Maryland legislature outlawed them.
So that’s where my thoughts headed when I read the release from the Distilled Spirits Council. Will Virginia’s new law permit drive-thru bars?
I tried to read the legislation House Bill 688. I couldn’t find any drive-thru window prohibition in there, but the legislation clocks in at almost 25,000 words. So Thursday I contacted the Distilled Spirits vice president who sent the release, Ainsley Giglierano.
“Does the law permit cocktails/beer/wine to be sold (to customers 21 & up) through an ABC-licensed establishment’s drive-through window?” I asked.
Initially, the question puzzled her. But Monday morning, I got an answer:
“There is no distinction in the law on how the cocktails to-go are handed to the adult consumer. So, that would lead us to believe a drive-through would be fine,” Giglierano wrote.
I also checked with Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. But they couldn’t give an immediate answer.
“Our team needs some additional time to review the legislation regarding your question, so we will not have an answer today,” responded Pat Kane, an ABC spokesman.
Current ABC rules regarding cocktails-to-go permit mixed drinks, wine and beer to go, but not shots of straight liquor. The booze must be in a “sealed” container, but not necessarily the original one. In a vehicle, the drinks should be transported behind the driver’s seat.
Virginia ABC regulations say the cocktails-to-go “should” have lids without holes for straws or drinking and limit the size to 16 ounces. Currently, the rules don’t seem to be creating a problem.
But it didn’t seem like a big problem back in Maryland, in the 1980s — until the rest of the state became aware and horrified of the drive-thru bars in St. Mary’s County.
The same could result in Virginia, or not. Stay tuned.