Takeout and delivery cocktails could become a permanent fixture in California even after the pandemic ends, if a new bill succeeds that was introduced in the state Legislature on Thursday.
State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, who introduced the legislation known as SB389, said the main impetus was to help restaurants generate more income.
“This industry has gotten hammered so badly,” he said. “In the big scheme of things, this is no silver bullet that is going to keep them in business, but hopefully it’s something that can be a shot in the arm for them going forward.”
He cited a survey from the National Restaurant Association that showed 78% of restaurants that sold to-go alcohol had rehired their workers, as opposed to 62% overall.
In March, California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control temporarily authorized the sale of to-go cocktails as long as they were sold with food, but it has been unclear so far how long that would be allowed. Under SB389, the food requirement would remain. As the chair of the Senate Governmental Organization committee, Dodd helps oversee the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Dodd’s bill comes less than a week after another piece of legislation was introduced that also seeks to loosen California’s alcohol laws. SB314, sponsored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, proposes to permanently extend restaurants’ alcohol sales into sidewalks and other public spaces, such as in parklets, and also creates a way for cities to enact open-container zones, among other things.
Dodd anticipated widespread and bipartisan support.
“There’s no one in the California state Senate or Assembly that doesn’t have constituents who own restaurants and are hurting,” he said. Addressing the likely criticism that the bill would pose public-safety concerns by making alcohol more widely available, Dodd said, “It’s not like it’s a delivery service just for booze, since people have to buy food with it. I doubt anybody’s going to buy 10 cocktails for themselves.”
Mom-and-pop California restaurants may soon be competing with a more powerful booze delivery service. On Feb. 2, Uber announced that it was buying Drizly, an alcohol delivery company that operates in more than 1,400 U.S. cities, for $1.1 billion, adding the ability to deliver drinks to its already strong food delivery mechanism under Uber Eats.
The new bill likely will go to the Senate floor in April or May.
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
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February 12, 2021 at 05:51AM
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New bill seeks to allow to-go cocktails from California restaurants even after pandemic ends - San Francisco Chronicle
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