North Carolina allows to-go cocktails from restaurants under new alcohol law

A new alcohol law in North Carolina allows restaurants to premix cocktails and let customers take them to go, but with some restrictions.

Alcohol laws in North Carolina regarding being able to take drinks to go from restaurants are changing. Senate Bill 527 — now law — was being called an omnibus bill, as a lot is happening in the bill involving alcohol. One of the changes includes restaurants now having the ability to premix cocktails and allow customers to take them to go. The requirement for this, however, is that the drink must be less than 13% alcohol and be ordered with food. In many ways, this extends what was temporarily put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excitement and Opportunities

Nathan Wardell, owner of The Bier Garden in Downtown Asheville is excited about the new opportunity. “Anything that allows us to open our portfolio to expand revenue I think is great and allowing us to control our own beverage programs,” he said. Wardell says the company will need to weigh the pros and cons, but he is excited overall. “We’ve always been allowed to sell beer and wine to go, so that’s a big staple of our alcohol sales already, so cocktails are going to be a new venture for us,” he said.

The owner of Daddy Mac’s, Dave McFarland, said he is happy to have the option to sell cocktails to go. But he says that right now, the business does not have an in-place program to do so. McFarland added that they will be taking a thoughtful approach to see how they could allow for to-go drinks responsibly.

Regulations and Restrictions

While some municipalities have a social district where you can walk around with an open drink, Asheville is not one of them. “This is not Mardi Gras [in] New Orleans coming to Western North Carolina. This is much, much, much more restricted,” said a local expert. He mentioned that in general, alcohol laws in North Carolina have always been strict and this new law slightly deregulates some aspects. It will also allow sales of alcohol on specific holidays from ABC stores. However, not all restaurants may choose to participate due to additional rules and monitoring needed for compliance.

Decision-Making for Restaurants

While the law did go into effect immediately and restaurants can sell to-go cocktails, it will ultimately be up to the individual restaurant to decide if they want to implement to-go sales or not.