MD Bill for the sale or delivery of off-site alcohol moving its way through General Assembly

MARYLAND- Restaurants selling and delivering alcoholic beverages off premises,  that’s what a pair of bills in the Maryland General Assembly is pushing for.

“Right now under the Governor’s Emergency Order they have been able to carry out delivery of alcohol with a food purchase,” Senator Mary Beth Carozza, said.

Senate Bill 205 and House Bill 12are currently in their opposite chambers.

If passed, restaurants, bars, taverns, that are licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption, could be authorized to sell them for off-site.

“They allow the delivery, carry out of alcohol again with a food purchase to continue up to two years after the Governor lifts his emergency order,” Senator Carozza said.

Senator Carozza said this has been a huge help to restaurants during the pandemic.

The General Manager for Mogan’s Oyster House agrees.

” I think any legislative aimed at opening any part of the economy in any way is going to be a positive thing,”  Michael Daly, GM, Mogan’s Oyster House, said.

But there is also worry on how it might impact in-person business.

“The biggest concern that I would have that it would become so popular that it might actually make a dent in live business,” Daly said.

In addition, the GM at Mogan’s also said the protocols they put in place with this bill should be universal throughout the counties.

“Everybody would have to go by the same rules because the counties around here are also different, so it would have to be a language that everybody could abide by,” Daly said.