BYOB in Atlanta: Clarifying the Policy

  The Atlanta City Council votes next week on a proposal to clarify the bring-your-own-bottle policy at restaurants.

The measure’s sponsors hope to jettison a city law that no one was following anyway.

An alcohol-pouring license costs $5000, and there is an additional license restaurants can buy, for $2000 more, that allows them to let customers bring their own bottles.

“Well, virtually no one has applied for that type of license in, you know, almost twenty years,” says Councilman Michael Julian Bond, one of the new ordinance’s sponsors.  Broadcast Version

An alcohol-pouring license costs $5000, and there is an additional license restaurants can buy, for $2000 more, that allows them to let customers bring their own bottles.

“Well, virtually no one has applied for that type of license in, you know, almost twenty years,” says Councilman Michael Julian Bond, one of the new ordinance’s sponsors.

Since the city is not making any money off the BYOB licenses anyway, Bond and co-sponsor Alex Wan want to do away with them.

The measure passed the Council’s Public Safety Committee earlier this week. Bond says it “goes before the full Council Monday, and I expect easy passage.”

If the measure does pass, it will still be up to each restaurant to decide whether you can bring your bottle in and whether you will be charged a corkage fee.