This post was written by Senior Staff Writer Amy D’onofrio.
Three Foggy Bottom establishments are one step closer to an exemption from a ban on single sales of alcohol now that a local neighborhood commission has agreed to write them letters of support.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A voted Feb. 18 to draft the letters of support for The Wine Specialist, Riverside Liquors, and The Market at Columbia Plaza. The establishments can then include the letters in an application to receive a pass from a law that bans liquor stores from selling bottles of beer that are 70 ounces or less and bottles of liquor that are less than four ounces.
The Alcohol Beverage Control Board will ultimately decide if the businesses will get a reprieve from the restrictions of the law passed last December. The D.C. City Council approved the measure, suggesting that it might limit lewd behavior on streets, but ANC 2A Chairman Armando Irizarry said that hasn’t been a problem for the stores requesting a waiver.
“There was no littering or loitering as a result of single sales,” he said. “We gave [letters of support] because [the liquor stores] did not represent a problem.”
The commission voted on each establishment separately, but with the same motion and vote of 4-1 in each case. Irizarry said Feb. 19 that once the letters were completed, they would be sent directly to the merchants.
Since the ban took effect Feb. 10, no banned sizes of beer or liquor have been sold in Ward 2.
The application for an exception to single sales restrictions requires a letter from the ANC as well as evidence of no adverse community impact, no Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration violations within the previous 12 months, and evidence of licensee participation in the community.
Manager Tim Schliftman of The Wine Specialist at 2115 M St. said his store turned in an application before Feb. 9, but will complete the application with the ANC’s letter.
Schliftman said that if they receive an exemption, the store will still not sell some of the types of beer that prompted the ban in the first place. “Malt liquor, 40s—we never sold that in the first place…what we sold before is not what they’re trying to ban.”
Schliftman said his store’s beer sales are down 25 to 30 percent since the ban started.
Riverside Liquors, located at 2123 E St., has seen fewer customers since the ban according to Sonu Singh, the store’s owner.
Singh said his store’s intention in applying to the ABC Board is to be able to sell craft beers again. “We don’t carry anything that the homeless will buy. We don’t carry cheap vodkas or half pints,” he said.
According to ABRA, the ABC Board has 60 days from the date of the submission of a completed application package to determine whether the application will be granted.
