The Bar Towel

I'm sure there has been some discussion about this before, but I can't find it. I'm recalling a couple of points. First was that small brewers could only sell what they brewed on their site. Example was the Nickel Brook / Sawdust City 11-05 collaborations that could only be sold at one site. Second was discussion about the small wine stores you sometimes see in grocery stores and why there couldn't be a craft beer equivalent. Can't recall the exact answer.

Anyway, today I see this.

Kichesippi Beer Co. Launches Bottles and Cans Beverage Company

https://www.kbeer.ca/pages/bottles-and- ... ge-company

So help me out. This appears to be a private beer retail operation that I thought wasn't allowed. Was there a change that I haven't heard about?

S. St. Jeb wrote:So help me out. This appears to be a private beer retail operation that I thought wasn't allowed. Was there a change that I haven't heard about?

Yup, there was. Early on in the pandemic the province passed some liquor law changes that include allowing a licensed establishment to sell take out alcohol with food (free or $1 chips usually).

cboden wrote:

S. St. Jeb wrote:So help me out. This appears to be a private beer retail operation that I thought wasn't allowed. Was there a change that I haven't heard about?

Yup, there was. Early on in the pandemic the province passed some liquor law changes that include allowing a licensed establishment to sell take out alcohol with food (free or $1 chips usually).

Yah, I do remember that. This has the appearance of being something different to me, but I suppose the change you are referring to must cover this.

I've been buying beer from other breweries at Town, and as mentioned it's with the sale of food- in this case a $1 bag of chips. There's also considerable markup, you're essentially paying restaurant prices. However there are now bottle shops like Bevi Birra and to my knowledge you don't need to purchase food when you order from them, so I'm not sure how they're operating. Prices are also quite high there, but we do seem to be one step closer to proper bottle shops.

Here is a good article summarizing the situation.

In short, the law is designed to allow places whose primary purpose is sale of food and alcohol on the premises to allow takeout of both. But they never really defined "food", and that's the loophole being exploited. A bottle shop owner said "We're not trying to do anything against the rules or break any rules. But right now, if somebody comes in to buy alcohol and there is a food component that needs to be included, we have 25 cent Welch's fruit snacks that they can purchase.".

I don't think it matters what one's views are about alcohol sales, it's easy to see that this is silly and not fair to all.