Everything you ever wanted to know about Liquor Licenses

Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING but here are a few key points:

There are many types of alcoholic beverage licenses available to would-be bar, restaurant, nightclub, brewery, winery, vineyard and retail store owners. The first differentiator is whether you plan to offer "on sale" or "off sale" consumption of booze. As the name implies, "off sale" means your customers will be consuming the beverage off premises-- This would be appropriate for wine stores, bodegas, BevMo, etc. On the other hand (and more relevant to this blog), "on sale" implies that customers will be drinking at/on your bar, restaurant, patio, dance floor, etc. Beyond these there are one-time catering permits, wholesale distributor licenses, importers, wine makers, wine warehouses, etc etc etc.

Once you've decided to serve patrons booze on the premises, you have a choice of obtaining a "general" license which enables you to offer distilled spirits (liquor), wine and beer OR limit the offerings to solely wine and beer. The governing body behind licenses is the Alcohol and Beverage Control ("ABC") and they have designated these types of licenses the Type 47 and Type 41, respectively. For a full list of licenses, look here.

All things being equal, most establishments would likely opt to offer liquor, beer and wine to their thirsty patrons. But of course its never that easy.... In San Francisco, both Type 41 and 47 licenses require several hundred dollars in fees, many many pages of paperwork, a mailing to all residents within 500' of your establishment, and at least 3-6 months of patience. However, upgrading to a full liquor license adds a whole new dimension to the game: the total number of type 47 licenses is limited based on the population of the county you do business in. Since the County of San Francisco is already saturated with licenses, any new license must taken over and/or purchased from an existing business. Average cost: ~$100,000. Suddenly not such a simple decision!

This topic to be continued....