Alcoholic Beverages with Meals in California

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

In CA now, you can only have booze with a meal. Sandwiches and salads are not meals.  Nor are appetizers.

 

No more Nutty Brunette Beer with my Pot Stickers at BJ's Brewpub for lunch.

 

https://www.abc.ca.gov/what-is-required-to-be-considered-a-meal/

 

"The Department has issued a variety of regulatory relief measures that require service of a meal. (See, Notices of Relief, items 5 and 16; June 10, 2020, Industry Advisory; and various Frequently Asked Questions.) This Advisory provides guidance as to what servings of food licensees must prepare and offer to comply with this requirement.

Business and Professions Code section 23038 provides that, “’Meals’ means the usual assortment of foods commonly ordered at various hours of the day; the service of such food and victuals only as sandwiches or salads shall not be deemed a compliance with this requirement.”

Given the tremendous variety of foods available at the many different licensed premises, this definition provides necessary flexibility to look at the totality of the circumstances in determining whether or not the food service provided by a licensee is a legitimate offering of meals in a bona fide manner. In evaluating this, the Department generally looks at the various menu offerings, availability during typical meal hours, and whether the food offered is served in a reasonable quantity and what a reasonable person might consider to be a meal consumed at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For example, although multiple courses are not required to constitute a meal, in order for the patron to be served a meal there should be a sufficient quantity that it would constitute a main course in a multiple-course dining experience.   

It is often easier to describe what does not constitute a bona fide meal. In that regard, while the statute excludes mere offerings of sandwiches and salad, the Department does recognize that many sandwiches and salads are substantial and can constitute legitimate meals. Once again, the Department looks at the totality of circumstances and generally considers that pre-packaged sandwiches and salads would not typically meet this standard. In addition, the Department will presume that the following, and offerings similar to them, do not meet the meal requirement:

• Snacks such as pretzels, nuts, popcorn, pickles, and chips

• Food ordinarily served as appetizers or first courses such as cheese sticks, fried calamari, chicken wings, pizza bites (as opposed to a pizza), egg rolls, pot stickers, flautas, cups of soup, and any small portion of a dish that may constitute a main course when it is not served in a full portion or when it is intended for sharing in small portions

• Side dishes such as bread, rolls, French fries, onion rings, small salads (green, potato, macaroni, fruit), rice, mashed potatoes, and small portions of vegetables

• Reheated refrigerated or frozen entrees

• Desserts"

 

[Smoken D]

How about Senior portion? Generally 1/2 of a full portion.

Only in California

[Joke 'um]

From food with drink regulation to face mask requirements.  No matter how well intentioned you may believe it to be, it all constitutes a steady and malicious erosion of our rights and liberties.  All of this nanny state crap is too much government.  So, to all you folks who want to tell me its for our own safety, when are we supposed to start saying, "NO MORE"?

[Perro Del Diablo]

I always thought peanuts on the bar was considered food.

[Pat Riot]

I have no words. 

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

7 minutes ago, Perro Del Diablo said:

I always thought peanuts on the bar was considered food.

The Confederate soldiers did during the Civil War.  They called peanuts, "Goober Peas."  Even got a song about eating Goober Peas.  Gotta watch out for that Georgia Militia!

 

[Ozark Shark]

Our founding fathers would have been shooting these fools long before it got to this level of insanity.

[Cat Brules]

I haven’t been following this.  
 

So, does that mean that all bars will now be shuttered and you aren’t allowed to walk in and order a “drink” (a beer or a glass of whiskey, a mixed drink, a glass of wine, etc)(?) alone, by itself?

 

Cat Brules

 

 

[Texas Lizard]

You know the reason...Como chips....

 

Texas Lizard

[blazeafar SASS # 6750]

This made me think of a trip to Denver a couple of years ago. My wife and I ventured into a small natural food sandwich/soup shop and ordered a bit to eat and a beer to go with our meal. They took our order and handed us our beers. It was a nice afternoon and seeing the tables outside were empty (my wife is not accustom to the cold air conditioning most place have) so we go out and have a seat. After a few minutes our orders were ready and they bring out our meals. They then tell us we can not sit outside with our beers and would need to move inside our go to there fenced in patio in the back.
Ok not an issue right, I've been in states with other odd regulations but what really ticked me off was that I could set outside and smoke some weed with no issue.

[J-BAR #18287]

1 hour ago, Ozark Shark said:

Our founding fathers would have been shooting these fools long before it got to this level of insanity.

 

Out of all the Hispanics that live in California, you'd think that at least one of them would be Zorro!

 

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I have no words. 

Ditto. 
 

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

39 minutes ago, blazeafar SASS # 6750 said:

This made me think of a trip to Denver a couple of years ago. My wife and I ventured into a small natural food sandwich/soup shop and ordered a bit to eat and a beer to go with our meal. They took our order and handed us our beers. It was a nice afternoon and seeing the tables outside were empty (my wife is not accustom to the cold air conditioning most place have) so we go out and have a seat. After a few minutes our orders were ready and they bring out our meals. They then tell us we can not sit outside with our beers and would need to move inside our go to there fenced in patio in the back.
Ok not an issue right, I've been in states with other odd regulations but what really ticked me off was that I could set outside and smoke some weed with no issue.

No you can’t. Pot smoking in public is expressly prohibited by state law.

[Warden Callaway]

Those that were setting in trees 30 years ago are now in offices making these decisions. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

My wife and I would sometimes make a dinner out with a few different appetizers.   Poke lettuce wraps, calamari, and pot stickers.   And a beer.

 

Sounds like someone has a relative in the restaurant business. 

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Cat Brules said:

I haven’t been following this.  
 

So, does that mean that all bars will now be shuttered and you aren’t allowed to walk in and order a “drink” (a beer or a glass of whiskey, a mixed drink, a glass of wine, etc)(?) alone, by itself?

 

Cat Brules

 

 

That's what I was wondering. Does the "have to order a meal with the drink" thing only apply to restaurants? Or will bars now have to serve full meals?

[South-Eye Ned]

I’ve been surviving off sandwiches for months, except for the sporadic dining out

[blazeafar SASS # 6750]

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

No you can’t. Pot smoking in public is expressly prohibited by state law.

You most likely are correct as you live there but saw a lot of smoking going on in downtown Denver.

 

[MizPete]

7 hours ago, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said:

pot stickers,

I've made many a meal out of jaozi.  If they don't want to sell me a Tsing Tao with them, I'll eat them at home.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

So glad to have left PRK 

It's sink'n fast......

OLG 

[Alpo]

Jaozi.

 

That the plural of djaodza? (When my sister-in-law, who is Shanghainese, says it I can hear those two Ds.)

[Cat Brules]

Geez, I have been out here alone for so long, I don’t even know what Chinese food looks like anymore!  
   

 

CB

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!

 

So very grateful that we got out of California before the roof fell in.

[Whiskey Hicks]

Masks and common distancing makes sense. This, is just absolutely bizarre.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

5 hours ago, Whiskey Hicks said:

Masks and common distancing makes sense. This, is just absolutely bizarre.

 

It's about control, and nothing else 

OLG 

[Warden Callaway]

6 hours ago, Whiskey Hicks said:

Masks and common distancing makes sense. This, is just absolutely bizarre.

 

Nothing natural or healthy about wearing a mask.  It fills with crap your are supposed to release and you breath the crap back in. It diminishes the oxygen flow to the brain and aggravates other health problems. 

[Smoky Pistols]

Well, they did say "what a reasonable person might consider a meal".  I think I see where the problem began.  To quote one of our better known brethren--that's just stoopid!

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

My old fire department mentor, rest his soul, told me of a bar in Canal Fulton.

Wally's.

Sign out front said "Warm beer, bad food and BOOZE."

There was a local ordinance that said if you sold alcohol you had to sell food as well.

Wally's had a chunk of old, moldy, ugly cheese under a glass cover, with some kind of a jack knife stuck in it.

If you wanted a sandwich, you were welcome to carve off some of that ancient, ugly, moldy cheese.

He said nobody ever wanted, but it was there and available, and so the law was satisfied.

He also told me about bar fights where he'd stand outside and wait for second place winners to be tossed out so he could arrest them.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Hell I had pretzels, peanut butter and beer last night for supper!!

[Dubious Don #56333]

None of this makes sense, LOL. My SIL is/was a Bakersfield native until he married my daughter and moved to the Free Zone. He sent me this a few days ago. Wow.

 

I get it. They think people at bars fail to social distance and such. Name me one study that proves that? Um, there isn't one? In fact, California, in the month+ after lockdown, wear a mask blah,blah,blah has a 162% INCREASE in cases. Oh wait. That's a BS number anyway. Number of cases/total deaths mean bupkus. Mortality rate and critical cases are the numbers to watch. Unchanged. There was another article yet today, this one in The Lancet that say lockdowns and all of this nanny crap don't do anything. So that 162% is the reason they use to justify making people eat a full meal if they want to drink.

 

I still think the bar guy in NYC that sells Cuomo Chips with a beer for a buck is the winner LOL.

[Nasty Newt # 7365]

Come on, guys.  The best and brightest minds in Sacramento came up with these rules, so...oh, wait.  Never mind.

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

Reminds me of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raines_law

 

It was stupid then and it is stupid now.

 

[Warden Callaway]

I can remember Missouri "Blue" that was inforced for 137 years. It outlawed selling items deemed non-essential on Sunday.  Alcohol was on the top of the list.  But it also didn't list baby bottles as essential so they too were not available.   I can remember going into the grocery store and seeing shelves covered.  Stores that sold non-food items were not open.  1963 the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the law for being too vague.

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Hangtree]

18 hours ago, Nasty Newt # 7365 said:

Come on, guys.  The best and brightest minds in Sacramento came up with these rules, so...oh, wait.  Never mind.

 

Name two.  Can't do it, can ya?

[Nasty Newt # 7365]

16 minutes ago, Marshal Hangtree said:

 

Name two.  Can't do it, can ya?

I think I beat you to it.