This story was reported and written by Radio IQ.
Virginia law requiring restaurants to sell about as much food as they do alcohol dates back to the prohibition era. Now, despite momentum from a failed effort in the 2024 session, those hopeful for change in 2025 might have to wait a bit longer.
Danville city councilman Lee Vogler said he talks to his local restaurateurs regularly about losing bar business to our neighbor to the south.
“We’ve watched money go into North Carolina from Danville for a long time. These places are set up just outside the city,” Vogler told members of the Virginia Small Business Commission at a meeting Tuesday in Richmond.
The loss stems from Virginia’s Mixed Beverage Annual Review, or MBAR, which requires a nearly equal amount of sales of food and booze to retain a liquor license. Vogler says his local hot spots want the rule rolled back. He pointed to loopholes in the MBAR for places like casinos and the post-pandemic legalization of to-go cocktails as further proof change is needed.
“We’re moving in that direction anyway so it seems like we should be a little more consistent,” Vogler added.
But there’s a hiccup to any MBAR change during the 2025 session: Virginia’s legislature has a long running custom of not passing laws that impact ongoing litigation and a Portsmouth fish and chips spot is currently suing Virginia over the constitutionality of the MBAR itself. Southside Senator Bill Stanley is repping the business in the suit, but wasn’t available for comment Tuesday. Court records show the state moved to dismiss the claims back in October and a judge has yet to rule.
But even if the lawsuit does slow down any MBAR change, Tommy Herbert with the Virginia Restaurant Travel and Lodging Association said the debate is not likely to fade away.
“It has been a conversation for at least over a decade now and I know folks are very motivated for a change to that policy,” Herbert said after Tuesday’s meeting. He testified as to his organization's 1200 members’ feelings on the issue, but noted they were evenly divided between those who want the change, those who don’t and those who are indifferent.
Over the last few decades, the MBAR had been maintained by longtime Senator Dick Saslaw who often decried the creation of “saloons” in Virginia. But an effort from Republican Senator Bryce Reeves made it all the way to the House floor during the 2024 session before being killed on the floor.
Reeves said he has no plans to submit an MBAR change this year because of the custom against legislating existing litigation.
Of course, the legislature could ignore the litigation/legislation custom: they did it in 2021, amending the way Virginia Beach elects local leaders, despite a federal court fight that ended years later.
