Outdoor dining receives a boost
House measure enables eateries to bypass waiting period; takeout drink bill stalls
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers this week approved the idea that alcohol-serving restaurants can fast track plans for new outdoor serving areas, but the future of so-called “cocktails-to-go” is unclear.
On Wednesday, the House gave unanimous approval to an amended bill that lets restaurants bypass a 30-day waiting period to set up expanded outdoor seating, among other things. The fast-track scenario was in place during the COVID19 disaster declaration that ended in June.
The bill to bring it back already was approved by the Senate. It now goes to Gov. Tom Wolf, and a spokesperson said he intends to sign it.
But bringing back cocktails-to-go appears less certain.
During the disaster declaration, restaurant customers could carry out mixed drinks to consume elsewhere. A bill to bring it back stalled when changes were made that disrupted support.
Many restaurants are struggling to emerge financially from the pandemic and cannot find employees to fill jobs.
“I deal with over a hundred restaurants, and there is not even one that is close to fully staffed,” Steve DiDonato, founder of the Lehigh Valley Restaurant Owners Alliance.
Beyond that, supply chain woes make it hard to find some ingredients.
Breaded pickles are hard to come by, while cheese sticks are plentiful, according to Bob Franklin, who has 47 employees as the owner of The Westy Bar & Grill in Berks County.
Manufacturers of restaurant-destined food supplies “are only running the product that is highly profitable and is going to move,” Franklin said.
The outdoor seating bill has several helpful measures, said Melissa Bova, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association.
“It allows restaurants and caterers to make up some of the revenue they lost during COVID,” Bova said.
The bill:
Restores for the next three years the fast-track process for expanding outdoor seating. Currently, a restaurant looking to
open up or expand outdoor seating must wait at least 30 days and have an inspection first.
Allows a liquor license-holding restaurant that closes to sell its unused wine and spirits to another license holder.
Lets license-holders with an off-premise catering permit have unlimited events. Currently, they are capped at 52 per year. The bill also eliminates through Dec. 31, 2024, the five-hour limit on catered event and eliminates the $500 fee for off-premise catering permits.
Cocktails to go
The bill that would make cocktails-to-go a permanent concept was approved by the House in late May.
When it got to the Senate, though, it was changed to allow many other outlets — including convenience and grocery stores — to sell a different product in “to-go” fashion: prepackaged mixed drinks in containers, including cans.
That derailed support. Wolf indicated he would veto the changed bill, and two Senate Republicans joined all Democrats voting against it when it passed in a 26-24 vote.
After additional back-andforth, the bill is now back in a Senate committee.
The concept that broke up the original, bipartisan support — the sales of prepackaged mixed drinks in containers — is gone.
But the senator who originally proposed the change, Republican Mike Regan of York County, said that while cocktails-to-go were helpful to small businesses during COVID, they are generally “bad policy.”
Regan said Pennsylvania experienced a surge in intoxicated driving incidents during the pandemic. Some of that, he said, may have been tied to cocktails-to-go.
At its core, he said, the concept allowed people to walk out of restaurants with a mixed drink as large as 64 ounces with a piece of tape over its straw and put it in their trunk and drive.
“With how much alcohol in it?” he said.
Beyond that, Regan said he has hundreds of restaurants in his district, and none of them have asked him to reinstate the cocktails-to-go concept.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County supports cocktails-to-go.
“They are fun, and it helps the restaurants, and that is the whole idea,” she said.
During the pandemic, she said, restaurants carried out the concept responsibly.
“The last thing they want is somebody leaving their restaurant and getting in a DUI and getting sued,” she said.
Sales volume down
A September restaurant association survey showed that 80% of members had lower sales volume in August, 2021, than in August, 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Lawmakers say they know the restaurants’ pain.
“They are not out of the hole yet,” Boscola said. “They still need a lot of help.”
Republican Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill of York County said restaurants in her district “are struggling to get the food supply that they want and a lot of restaurants are asking their patrons to be patient.”
And Phillips-Hill said, several have cut their hours because of a lack of employees.
The fate of both cocktails-to-go and takeout mixed drinks in containers — called “ready to drink” cocktails — is uncertain in the Legislature.
“It is expected that there will be larger discussion on liquor expansion and we will continue dialogue with the governor,” said Erica Wright, a spokesperson for Senate Republican Majority Leader Kim Ward.