Louisiana Liquor Laws

 Baton Rouge, LA

Sales At the State Level vs. the Parish Level

At the state level Beer, Wine, and Spirits can be sold at grocery stores 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  The state also allows for dedicated liquor stores to sell Beer, Wine, and Spirits 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  The state does allow each parish (basically a county) to decide on their own liquor laws pertaining to time and day of sales.  The south part of the state tends to be more liberal with their alcohol sales than the northern parishes. You will need to check with the parish you are visiting about Sunday sales and sales of packaged alcohol from grocery stores after 2am. 

The red parishes have some sort of restrictions for Sunday alcohol sales

I started looking at a few parishes and they are all over the board.  It looks like some block liquor sales between 2am and 6 or 7am every day and some treat Sundays differently and have extended dry hours.  I am not going to be spending much time in the red parishes so I don't think I will go through and list every parish and their unique liquor laws.  I will stick with East Baton Rough and Orleans (the 2 parishes I will be spending the most time in).  

Gas stations are also allowed to sell packaged beer as well as breweries.

At the state level onsite bars must close by 2am except for New Orleans where bars in the French Quarter are permitted to be open 24 hours a day.  The state allows parishes to determine if on site sales are restricted on Sunday or not.

East Baton Rouge, LA

In East Baton Rouge Parish (the parish that Baton Rouge is in) you can buy alcohol at grocery stores and liquor stores from 6am to 2am every day.  Bars are can be open until 2am every day.  

The alcohol areas in our local supermarket are wide and full

Target was selling beer, wine, and spirits as well.

Orleans Parish

Orleans is basically the same as Baton Rouge except for the special carve out for the French Quarter.  You can buy alcohol at grocery stores from 6am to 2am and at bars until 2am.  In the French Quarter bars are permitted to sell alcohol 24 hours a day.

Fun Fact

Louisiana isn't as crazy as Missouri where they let the passenger in a vehicle drink all they want while they ride in the car but they do allow drive through Daiquiri stands.  Frozen Daiquiris are basically alcoholic slushies.  You can get about a dozen flavors and you can even get them at drive throughs even though you can't drink them.  They come in Styrofoam cups with a straw on the side.  You aren't allowed to push the straw through the lid until you get to your destination.  This is the most liberal definition of non-open container I have ever heard of.  We haven't experienced one yet but we plan to next month.  I will be sure to report back.  Until then here is a stolen photo showing the sealed container.

Stolen from here.  They have a great legal write up about them.

Cajun Cooking

Yesterday Donna and I cooked up our Grits that we bought the other day.  We made a white gravy for them with Tasso which is a dried ham used for flavoring.  The meal turned out great!  

The recipe we used can be found here.  We cooked Baked Eggs in Tasso Cream and put them on top of Gouda Grits from this recipe that has more than just the Gouda Grits.

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

D.C. Liquor Laws

 Washington D.C.

Blue Skies in D.C.

Liquor Laws in D.C.

Since D.C. is closely related to Baltimore and we have been here a couple times on this trip I have decided to break down Liquor Laws in D.C.  

Packaged Beer and Wine can be bought at grocery stores, liquor stores, and convenient stores.  Packaged liquor must be purchased from a licensed liquor store.  Packaged alcohol can be purchased from 7am to midnight 7 days a week.

Bars can serve on premise alcohol from 6am to 2am during the week and 6am to 3am on the weekends.  There are no special restrictions on Sunday sales of alcohol in Washington D.C.  Recently a bill was passed to allow bars to be open 24 hours a day during The World Cup but alcohol will need to stop being served from 4am to 6am.  There were also some holidays added to that rule so on some holidays you can be served alcohol until 4am.

Not being a state has its advantages: DC is the only place in the country where bars and restaurants can purchase alcohol directly from breweries/distilleries; every other state requires using a wholesaler.  Take that InBev!

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Savanah, GA and Open Containers and Dogs

 Savanah, GA

The cross hashed areas are where you can have an open container in Savanah!

Visiting Savanah GA

When we are on the road we camp as much as makes sense because we enjoy it and it helps offset more expensive stays.  Savanah would normally be an expensive stay but we have built up enough points using our Hilton Amex to make it a free stay.  The free part doesn't include the pet fee or parking but it's a lot less expensive than paying for it all.  When we visit a new city I try to do a bit of research and the fact that Savanah is one of the few places in the US that allows open containers in certain areas caught my attention.  Our Embassy Suites Hotel sits right in the middle of the open container area (we didn't know this at the time of booking).

 Savanah is awesome!  There are dogs everywhere and bars everywhere.  We are staying in the The Embassy Suites and were able to check in early.  Apparently this went live before I could finish it.  Sorry to you that read it before it was done.  

We rolled into town at about noon and there was a room for us.  We got settled and then hit the downtown area.  

Tonight we will hit a tiki bar in Atlanta and enjoy more of Savannah. Savannah seems like a great place.  We have 2 more weeks on the road and then Baton Rouge!  

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Liquor Laws in Maryland

 Baltimore, MD

Breweries are plentiful in Baltimore

Liquor Laws in Maryland

Today was a half day of hanging out with Tony and then a half day of just hanging out so let's talk Maryland Liquor Laws!

I haven't spent much time in bars talking to bartenders on this leg of the trip so I need to dig in online.  I did my initial search and Wikipedia said this, " Alcohol laws of Maryland vary considerably by county, due to the wide latitude of home rule granted to Maryland counties."  I guess this isn't going to be straight forward.

State law prohibits open containers in private passenger vehicles just like every other sane state (I'm looking at you Missouri).  There are allowances for drinking in the back of hired vehicles like limos, taxis, and busses.  State sets the tax on liquor sales at 9% but that is about as far as the state is involved.  The state has left most of the governing to the 23 counties in Maryland.

So things don't get too confusing, Baltimore City is it's own county and is mostly surrounded by Baltimore County.

Baltimore City is the Nevada shape in the middle of the photo and Baltimore County is the county that looks like a wrench around Baltimore City.

Just walking around Baltimore I have noticed that alcohol is plentiful in bars and restaurants and that the liquor store is separate from the grocery store.  The city of Baltimore doesn't have it's own Alcohol Beverage Control.  On premises sales start at 6am and can go to 2am 7 days a week and Rocky Gap casino can sell 24 hours a day.  Packaged sales can happen M-SA 7am to 2am and on Sunday 11am-12am (so you can find time to go to church in the morning).  Packaged alcohols sales aren't allowed in Grocery Stores.  Packaged Beer, Wine, and Liquor are sold at dedicated stores.  There is growing support for Maryland to allow alcohol sales in grocery stores but the proposals that have been introduced haven't passed as laws yet.

In the state of Maryland there are still a few grocery stores that sell alcohol.  They have been grandfathered in because they were selling alcohol before the 1978 law disallowing it was passed.  The minimum age to buy alcohol is 21 but until 1982 it was 18.

The City of Baltimore does have a BYOB law and we have seen a few establishments sporting the fact that they are BYOB.  For those not in the know, BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Bottle.  Here is the wording straight from the law document provided by the city;

A restaurant that is not licensed by the Board may allow a customer to consume alcoholic beverages from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. the following day if:

(1) the alcoholic beverages are brought to the restaurant by the customer;

(2) the alcoholic beverages are consumed with a meal;

(3) there is no charge for admission to the restaurant; and

(4) the Baltimore City Fire Department determines that the maximum seating capacity of the restaurant is 50. 

Donna and I used to go to a BYOB Indian food place in San Francisco when we first moved there.  The concept was weird to us and after a few years they no longer allowed this to happen.

The Beer and Wine store attached to the local Harris Teeter Grocery Store near us.

The inside

One of the beers that I bought there.  It really tied the meal together.

A local liquor store I have yet to go into

That's my post for today.  Please remember that this info is from a consumers point of view and not legal advice.  If you plan on opening an establishment that sells alcohol in Maryland do your own research and let me know so we can buy a drink there.  If you missed local liquor laws in Missouri, Kansas, or Texas you can find the posts in the links.  If you missed yesterday's foodie adventure you can see it here.  I can still taste my delicious pit beef!

Kansas Liquor Laws

 Kansas City, MO

A photo I took at a local Kansas City, Kansas Grocery Store

Kansas Liquor Laws

Kansas is a city so great it's too big for one state so we can talk about the Kansas side of things today.  We spent most of our time in KCMO but did spend some time in KCK and even had a beer there.  We didn't talk to any bartenders there so I am getting all of my info off the internet.

Wikipedia starts off with this sentence which shows the contrast between the 2 sides of Kansas City, "The alcohol laws of Kansas are among the strictest in the United States, in sharp contrast to its neighboring state of Missouri.".  I don't think I can distill the info that Wikipedia has any more than it is so here is more straight from the site, "Kansas had statewide prohibition from 1881 to 1948, longer than any other state, and continued to prohibit general on-premises liquor sales until 1987. Kansas's strict and highly regulated approach to alcohol stems from lingering vestiges of its long era of prohibition. As of January 2019, Kansas has 3 dry counties, where on-premises liquor sales are prohibited, but the sale of 3.2% beer is permitted. As of April 2017, Kansas still has not ratified the 21st Amendment, which ended nationwide prohibition in 1933."

There is a lot that I can copy and paste about the history but I will just keep it high level and give you the state of the state as it stands today.  One thing that I found interesting about the history of it includes the fact that "Happy Hour" was not legal in Kansas until 2012.  Before that, prices could be reduced but had to be reduced all day.

Today Kansas divides alcohol into 6 categories (not just the 3 that I am used to); "Alcohol Liquor" is anything over 3.2%, A "Cereal Malt Beverage" (CMB) is beer less than 3.2%, a "Nonalcoholic Malt Beverage" is beer less than 0.5%, "Domestic Table Wine" is wine less than 14% and made in Kansas, "Domestic Fortified Wine" is wine between 14% and 20% made in Kansas,  and "Domestic Beer" is beer 8% or less made in Kansas.

Packaged Liquor sales are only allowed by licensed liquor stores.  Grocery Stores and Gas Stations can sell CMB, which is the beer that is 3.2% or less.  If you want to open a liquor store in Kansas, you need to be a US citizen and have lived in Kansas for at least 4 years, as well as be 21, have no felony, never had a liquor license revoked, not be in law enforcement, and your spouse needs to meet all of these requirements as well.  Your liquor store needs to be 200 ft. from schools, colleges, and churches.  It also can't have an indoor entrance or opening which connects to another store.

On premises sales of Liquor need to be accompanied by at least 30% sales of food unless voters in a county vote to remove that requirement.  There are still 3 counties that have not approved any sale of alcohol, 63 counties that allow alcohol sales with the 30% food sales, and 39 counties that allow what I call normal bars, establishments that serve liquor and no food.  Alcohol sales are not permitted between 2am and 9am.  Due to Covid-19, to go beverages are allowed to be sold as long as the drinks have tamper evident packaging (one can clearly see if it has been opened).

This explains why most of the bars in KC are on the MO side.  We did have a few breweries picked out to visit but getting there by bus is just too much of a hassle because frequency is terrible. Checking off a Kansas Brewery will have to wait.

The one beer I had in Kansas while playing pinball. It was over 3.2%

An ad for Montucky Cold Snack on the side of the bar we went to in Kansas City, KS

That's it for today.  Kind of interesting hu?  I don't think we will choose to settle down in Kansas but it is nice to visit.  If you missed yesterday's write up on Missouri Liquor Laws you can check it out here.  I will leave you with some more official links below.

2021 Liquor Law Amendments

2022 Changes

Department of Revenue site with all the laws 

MO Liquor Laws

 Kansas City, MO

My Bronson's Milk Punch at Grunauer.

Missouri Liquor Laws

As we travel, I like to get familiar with local liquor and alcohol laws.  There are some surprising things out there and I find them interesting.  All of this info is either gathered from talking to bar tenders, our experiences, or the internet.  These are my observations from a consumer's standpoint and should be used for entertainment only.  Something I write here isn't going to stand up in court.  

So far, while in Missouri, we haven't experienced a situation where we couldn't order a drink of some sort unless we were at a place without a license.  In general, alcohol can be bought between 6am and 1:30am all week including Sundays.  Most bars need to be closed by 1:30 but there are at least a few in Kansas City and St. Louis that are allowed to serve until 3am and there is 1 "super secret" place called The Mutual Musicians Foundation that serves until 5:30am.  It has special status as a National Historic Landmark and a special law was passed by The Missouri House of Representatives to allow only this place to serve alcohol all night.  It's now the place that all of the bartenders, musicians, and late night partiers go after the bars close.  We have heard you can hear some epic music there after 1:30am but we can't stay up that late.

Packaged alcohol can be purchased at Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, and Liquor stores in Missouri.  This includes all three categories of alcohol (Beer, Wine, and Spirits).  Missouri state law specifically prohibits any counties, or unincorporated city or town from banning the retail sale of liquor, but only allows incorporated cities to ban the sale of liquor by the drink by public referendum. No incorporated Missouri cities have ever chosen to hold a referendum banning alcohol sales.

As far as I can tell, there is no law that requires food to be served with alcohol like there is in other places and no law that says food must be served at an establishment that serves alcohol.  There are real bars in all of Missouri as far as I can tell unlike our experience in Texas which was county by county.

We hear the open container laws for walking around are strictly enforced like they are in other places (our experiences with this are mixed as there are places we walk in the morning that are littered with bottles and cans of various libations). There is one district, The Power and Light District, that has a special carve out.  You can carry around an open container within a certain area.  The area is much like City Walk or Downtown Disney where there are multiple bars, food establishments, and outdoor entertainment going on in the evenings.  There are also legal carve outs for "festivals" and "events".  We have been to at least one "festival" where they opened up the area for people to bring their dogs to the antique district and then called it something fun and served alcohol.

The REALY interesting law here is the open container law as it pertains to vehicles.  There is NO OPEN CONTAINER LAW FOR VEHICLES!  This means that Donna can chug a bottle of Jack Daniels in the passenger seat while I drive 70 MPH down the interstate.  She would never do this but she could if she were so inclined to do so.

We will be able to have a drink in our campsites while we are camping throughout Missouri but you can't drink on beaches or in parking lots at state parks.  We will be traveling to some states where you can't have a beer while camping which I think is pretty dumb.  

And now here are some photos of various beverages we have enjoyed in Missouri so far.

I got a free sample at a brewery so that isn't necessary illegal.

Museum Beer!

That's it for today but you can read about yesterday's adventure here.  

Texas Liquor Laws

 McKinney, TX

A Texas Liquor Store

A shallow dive into Texas Liquor Laws*

If you don't care about liquor laws and just want to read about what we did jump down to the bottom section now.

When we travel we always like to find out about the local liquor laws.  Can you buy whiskey at Trader Joes?  Can you buy beer at the grocery store?  That sort of thing.  The most interesting place we have been to in regards to this is Utah.  We went after the Olympics loosened up their rules but it was still pretty rule heavy.  Texas is the middle of the road from our perspective.  

Texas liquor laws go down to the county level and even the city level for the small details.  There are 5 counties in Texas that are completely dry (no alcohol sales) and 59 completely wet counties.  The rest are a mix based on the city level.  We are in Collin County and, what this site calls, a partially wet county.  The State level laws changed in 2021.  At the state level, Beer and Wine sales can start at 10am on Sunday where before the new law sales could only start at Noon.  At a very high level the state allows Beer and Wine Sales at Grocery Stores Monday through Friday 7am to midnight, Saturday 7am to 1am, and Sundays now from 10am to midnight, Bars and Restaurants with licenses can sell Monday through Friday: 7 a.m. to midnight and Saturday 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. (Sunday morning) and some establishments can sell spirits Sunday from 10am to noon for "Brunch" and then fewer can serve spirits until 2am.  Packaged Liquor stores are the only places that can sell liquor for off site consumption and they are all closed on Sundays.  There is a lot of good info here if you want my references or more details to this complex system. I am only coming  at it from a tourists standpoint.

Collin County, the county we are in, is a partially wet county.  The city decides what their terms are in regards to off site and onsite sales as long as they fall within the States laws.  McKinney is the city we are staying in.  They allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine and restaurants that serve food to serve liquor and mixed drinks.  I don't see any traditional bars that just serve alcohol here in McKinney.  There is a city called Nevada in Collin County and it is dry so if you mix it up with Nevada State you're going to have a bad time.  

Our Texas Liquor Store Experience

Today we did a bit of grocery shopping and then wanted to buy a bottle of gin.  You can't buy gin at any grocery store in Texas so we had to find a "Packaged Liquor Store" to visit.  I looked online and Liquor King seemed to be the best "local" option and it isn't in McKinney.  There is one in McKinney but it rated lower on the reviews so we drove to Allen TX to buy gin.  I had seen it on our drive home from the movie theater that I wrote about here and here.  When we walked in it felt like a normal liquor store to us.  We have been in State Run liquor stores and those feel like you are at the post office but buying alcohol.  They feel weird.  I looked around at the whiskey while Donna looked for gin.  We had gotten Leopold's Gin in Denver and really liked it so we were looking for something by them.  I was looking at whiskey prices and they were reasonable.  Having recently lived in Washington State, all liquor prices seem reasonable.  Washington is by far the most expensive state to buy alcohol in.  When they got rid of their state liquor stores they added a temporary per liter tax on alcohol sales to help make up the revenue stream for the short term and just left it on.  I have a feeling the wine lobby is helping keep it on.  Our bottles were what one would consider normal prices with an 8.25% sales tax added.  Very reasonable. 

This is local Washington Whiskey.  They bottles would be the price + 8.25%. In Washington they would be the price + the liter tax + 20.5% sales tax. So it is cheaper to buy the local Washington whiskey half way across the country in Texas. Go home Washington, you're drunk!

 

Here is a photo Donna took when we first moved to WA so we could wrap our heads around the prices.

Our purchases.  They are both very nice.

That's it for today.  I could have gone on and on about the liquor laws here.  I even downloaded a spreadsheet that I didn't share so be thankful I spared you.  Check out the links I linked above if you want to learn more and check out our movie day yesterday if you didn't already.

*I am a tourist, not a lawyer.  If the liquor laws in Texas are important to your livelihood do not take the information in this blog as legal advice.  :)