Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso is sponsoring an ordinance that, if approved by the council next month, would relax the parish’s open-container law by allowing craft breweries to sell growlers—large refillable containers with a screw-on or flip-top that are used to hold and transport beer.
Currently, craft breweries are not allowed to sell beer in growlers because of the parish’s strict open container law. Amoroso’s measure would allow growlers that hold up to two liters of beer, provided the containers are properly capped once removed from the premises of the brewery.
In another significant change to the existing ordinance, Amoroso’s measure would allow restaurants to re-cork open unfinished bottles of wine so patrons can take them home. Though many restaurants currently do that anyway, it’s technically against the law.
“I’m really excited about this,” Amoroso says. “I see this as a common sense piece of legislation.”
The councilman says he wasn’t motivated to draft the measure because of any specific pressure from bar or restaurant owners. Rather, he says he’s been thinking about the issue for a while, since his tenure several years ago on the city-parish’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. With a growing number of craft breweries in the area, making it easier to sell beer for transport and home consumption makes good business sense, he says.
With respect to restaurants and wine bottles, the proposed amendment not only addresses a law that many restaurants and their patrons are unwittingly breaking. It potentially prevents diners from overindulging.
“Under the current ordinance, the motivation you have in a restaurant is to hurry up and finish the whole bottle,” Amoroso says. “It makes so much more sense to allow people to bring their unfinished bottles home.”
The proposed ordinance requires that bottles of wine be at least partially consumed at the restaurant, that the restaurant have a receipt for the wine, and that the bottles be securely corked and placed in a sealable bag.
Amoroso says he’s had the proposed legislation ready to go since the summer but held off because of the more serious issues the parish was facing in July and August. In the meantime, though, he says he has thoroughly vetted it and has the support of the ABC board.
“I’m sure someone out there will oppose it,” he says. “But I haven’t heard from anyone yet.”
—Stephanie Riegel
