McCaysville restaurants may soon be allowed to have happy hours and other drink specials if city officials agree.
How about a brewery or a wine tasting room? Is it okay to sell a bottle of wine to an interested customer?
These questions and other alcohol related topics were a focus of a workshop held by McCaysville city officials, January 23.
Police Chief Mike Earley, who serves as the city’s project and event manager, along with City Attorney Cortney Stuart, presented the following questions restaurant owners and businesses had been wondering about:
•Could McCaysville ever have a brewery?
•Could McCaysville allow drink specials, including a discount day for locals?
•Can a business display a banner printed for a special event that includes alcohol?
•Can the alcohol serving cut-off time of 11:45 p.m. have exceptions for certain days like New Years Eve?
•Can a non Fannin County resident acquire an alcohol license if they own a business in McCaysville?
•Can there be a wine tasting during special events? Would it require a special permit?
•Can there be a catering license? For instance, if there was an arts in the park at the McCaysville park, could a business sell alcohol in that designated area? Would it require a special permit?
•What about package sales? Can restaurants or businesses sell unopened bottles?
Earley said that pretty much all the questions had actually been addressed in the draft version of the alcohol ordinance from 2017. He said the previous council had removed all those sections to get to the existing ordinance now in affect, which was adopted in 2017.
Stuart agreed saying the wording was largely completed so, if the council wanted to add some version of any of the discussed topics, they had a starting point to work from.
Citing a concern about wet t-shirt contests by a previous council member, Stuart said there was a way to allow drink specials without allowing contests. In regards to various licenses, Stuart said they’d need to look at all the related licenses and permits and ensure they’re all parallel in cost and function.
Earley said the open container ordinance would need to be modified if the council chose to allow alcohol during special events in the park or similar. In regards to package sales, he said, because package sales aren’t currently allowed, if a customer wants to buy a bottle of wine from a restaurant, they have to have a glass of it first and then take it home. An option would be to only allow package sales in the downtown business area, which is defined loosely as the section of Blue Ridge Drive from West/East Tennessee to the three-way-stop. From the three-way-stop to Castile Street at Kenny’s Pizza. The state line on Bridge Street to West Tennessee. And West Tennessee to Blue Ridge Drive.
Earley said he and his officers have been actively enforcing the current alcohol ordinance and added, “I think it (an updated ordinance) could be enforced as good as it is now.”
City officials largely listened to the questions presented to them and requested time to review the original draft version of the alcohol ordinance versus the current alcohol ordinance prior to voicing any opinions. City officials will continue to discuss potential updates to the alcohol ordinance.