Get Your Liquor License

The liquor licensing attorneys and staff at Rodriguez Law, P.C. represent restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and liquor stores who are looking to obtain a liquor license all over the state of New York.   We help clients obtain or transfer liquor licenses, defend against violations, and we handle appeals within the State Liquor Authority (“SLA”) and in court.

The SLA will reject any and all applications that are deemed incomplete.  New York has a complicated liquor code.   We have extensive experience working with the SLA and we are confident that we can handle client’s issues.

Time is money and if a client wants to open a restaurant, nightclub, liquor store, any type of liquor business, they need to work with someone who is experienced, who knows the ropes, who understands the law, who has a good rapport with the SLA, to make sure their process flows efficiently and timely in order get those doors open and start making money.

We have enough experience in this area to assure clients that there is no learning curve.  We have encountered every single liquor licensing issue possible.

According to the New York State Liquor Authority’s (“SLA”) Summer 2008 Newsletter, 80% of applications come back still missing vital information mandated by New York’s Alcohol Beverage Control Law (“ABC Law”) in response to their routine notice of deficiency.  These delays often add anywhere from three to six months to the normal process of obtaining a liquor license in New York.  Many applications are rejected during the first inspection due to the applicant’s unfamiliarity and lack of knowledge of New York’s complicated liquor code.

Delays in obtaining a liquor license are extremely costly.  As the New York Times indicated in an August 2009 article, “Liquor License Delays Add to Restaurants’ Pain,” alcohol sales generate anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of the profit for restaurants to 100% for bars and nightclubs, and owners are losing not only money but also potential customers who recoil from a dry establishment.  The story chronicled the plight of several restaurants and bars in obtaining a liquor license and navigating the liquor authority’s stringent application process. “Sometimes people sit down, order, realize they can’t get a beer, and leave,” stated one restaurant owner. “We lose a lot of customers.” Bars, nightclubs, and liquor stores can not even open their doors until their liquor license is approved which takes non-attorneys 6-12 months.

In April 2009, after a yearlong corruption inquiry, the New York State inspector general raided the SLA’s Harlem office.  Investigators suspected that employees had taken bribes to expedite liquor licenses.  A small army of “expediters” – often former state liquor authority employees – were found to offer help to get a liquor application through the red tape, for a fee.  “The Manhattan office of the State Liquor Authority was so riddled with ineptitude and corruption that it would have to be restructured,” reported the Daily News. “An eight-month backlog made corruption easy.”

According to a New York State Law Revision Commission’s Report on the SLA and ABC Law, the SLA’s nine month backlog of liquor license applications as of October 2009 reflected a “failure in the licensing process, jeopardized public health and safety, and exacerbated the economic crisis currently plaguing New York.”  The Report stated that “small business owners…are forced to suffer ever-mounting expenses for months on end without the income generated from having these [liquor] licenses.” In the Report, the LRC called for major modifications to the ABC Law as well as changes to the way the SLA is administered.

In March 2010, SLA Chairman Dennis Rosen testified to a Senate committee that although the backlog in Upstate New York had been eliminated, about 1,700 applications remained to be processed in the New York City metropolitan area.  “These delays, which should be considered unacceptable during good times, are simply intolerable, given the current economic climate,” stated Rosen.

In response to the backlog, Chairman Rosen imposed stricter guidelines on accepting applications.  Higher level employees within the SLA now perform a thorough review at intake to eliminate accepting applications that are incomplete or not approvable, as acceptance of such applications leads to wasted staff time and adds to the backlog.  Applicants are no longer permitted to “piecemeal” information or documentation required by the SLA, which has led to examiners starting and stopping and restarting the examination process.  The examining process will now come back in to compliance with statute.  If the required information is not provided in compliance with the applicable ABC Law, the application will be disapproved for failure to comply.  The applicant will have the right to request a hearing on the disapproval, a process which takes months, or may reapply.  The SLA currently spends months reviewing applications that are incomplete, which is unfair to applicants who have properly filled out their applications and adds substantially to the backlog.

The State Liquor Authority’s 26-page “on-premises” application requires owners’ detailed financial information, prior employment experience, proof of citizenship and floor-plan details, and it also entails fingerprinting and background investigations. It asks whether music will be played (and if so, what kind) and whether dancing is planned.

Even seemingly straightforward applications can be delayed by a required hearings process, particularly when they fall afoul of the authority’s 200-foot rule (governing the proximity to schools, churches, synagogues and mosques) and 500-foot rule (which applies when three liquor-license-holding businesses are within 500 feet of each other).

Applicants have also being stymied by increasingly empowered community boards that raise objections, both substantive and persnickety. And owners can also be held hostage to reviews by the city’s Department of Buildings, since a certificate of occupancy is an application requirement.

If you would like to avoid the risks and complications involved in the liquor licensing process, and you would like to obtain your license months earlier given that time is money, please call us to schedule an initial consultation at (877) 311-4548.