"After years of talk, a bill that could significantly expand the number of restaurants that can sell beer, wine and spirits has finally gotten an initial vote in the Legislature.
The plan is likely to be altered as it moves ahead, and last week’s action by the Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee was designed in part to compel more serious conversations about the long-discussed but long-delayed prospect of ending strict limits on liquor licenses that date to the end of Prohibition.
Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, said individual municipalities would have to decide if they want the licenses and where they’d be allowed. They would cost up to $10,000 a year, depending on a restaurant’s size, and couldn’t be sold.
“There’s a significant portion of economy that is being held back because of these laws,” Burzichelli said.
Holders of existing liquor licenses, some which cost more than a half-million dollars, could be eligible for five years of tax credits if the license values go down, but James Talerico, the senior director of development for the Briad Restaurant Group, said the formula isn’t enough.
“If you are going to credit a company for expanding liquor licenses, there has to be a better way to reimburse the people that have invested so much money into those,” said Talerico, whose company is the nation’s largest T.G.I. Friday’s franchise operator." http://nj1015.com/nj-getting-ready-to-allow-more-bars-restaurants-that-serve-alcohol/
“…strict limits on liquor licenses that date to the end of Prohibition.”
According to the NJ ABC Handbook, the limits date from 1947, not the Repeal era:
"Since 1947 only one retail consumption license, with certain exceptions, can be issued in a municipality for each 3,000 of its population, although licenses in excess of this limit before 1947 were grandfathered."
I like the fact that limited on-premise licenses means there are so many BYOB restaurant choices. Better - and cheaper! - selection, since I bring the beer I want to pair with the food and I know it’s fresh.
The only drawback is the lousy selection of glassware some BYOB places offer. The other day I went to a place that had nice empty tall chalices inverted on the table. When I went to fill one with my beer, the waiter stopped me, since they were their water glasses. Instead, he brought me an ugly “shaker pint” with a Bud Light / NFL logo…
Yes, I love the large selection of BYOB restaurants in NJ. I would rather bring my own wine than pay triple the price of a bottle at a restaurant. I also bring my own big red wine glasses, so I can enjoy the wine. I hate the cheap little glasses they offer you.
