Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Gabriela’s Restaurant Seeks Permits
FARMINGTON — Gabriela’s Mexican Grill restaurant in Farmington has applied for a mixed-drink permit from Alcoholic Beverage Control and will ask to transfer its current private club permit to its new restaurant in Prairie Grove, according to Diego Gonzalez, one of the co-owners.
Gabriela’s application for a mixed-drink permit is listed on the Jan. 10 weekly report for the Alcoholic Beverage Control website. Gonzalez said he understands that the application will be considered by the ABC Board at its Feb. 26 meeting.
The restaurant has started the process for a private club permit for its Prairie Grove restaurant.
Prairie Grove City Council on Feb. 17 approved an ordinance to allow Gabriela’s Mexican Grill to transfer its private license from Farmington to the Prairie Grove location.
Gabriela’s will have to submit an application to the ABC Board to transfer the private license to another restaurant, according to Robyn Davis, a legal specialist with the state agency.
Davis said the private club application has a number of requirements, including a list of 100 people who are members of the private club; a club president, secretary and treasurer; background checks; and written support from public officials.
Gonzalez said he will immediately submit an application for a private club license for the Prairie Grove restaurant as soon as the Farmington mixed-drink permit is approved. The plan is to have the private club license in place before the Prairie Grove restaurant opens, which will probably be in mid to late May.
Originally, Gabriela’s had hoped to be able to apply for a mixed-drink permit for its new Prairie Grove restaurant on Heritage Parkway.
However, the city of Prairie Grove missed a deadline to add a question on selling liquor by the drink in the “wet” parts of Prairie Grove to the March 3 election ballot. If voters had approved the question on the ballot, the restaurant, located in a “wet” part of town, had planned to apply for a mixed-drink permit.
After missing the deadline, Prairie Grove’s options were to call a special election or wait and place the referendum on the Nov. 3 election ballot. Mayor Sonny Hudson said then the city did not plan to pay for a special election.
One of the main advantages of a mixed- drink permit is that a business can have alcohol delivered to the restaurant, Gonzalez said. For a private club permit, the business has to pick up wine and liquor and bring it to the restaurant.
Farmington’s new permit will allow the restaurant to offer additional varieties of alcoholic beverages, Gonzalez said.