I’ve all the time heard that in Oregon, locations that serve exhausting liquor are required to serve sizzling meals, and the meals is meant to be some minimal share of complete gross sales. Some locations, nonetheless, supply just a few microwaved snacks that no one buys. Is that this one more rule successfully killed by COVID? —Hungry Barfly
COVID actually did flip our world the other way up, Barfly. You possibly can drive with expired tags with out getting pulled over, cease paying hire with out getting evicted, and carry a martini dwelling in a cup to go with out being hassled by the person. On this moral Narnia, I can’t blame you for questioning whether or not some unscrupulous bar house owners may need provided patrons a number of licks off a peanut butter-covered stripper pole and referred to as it a sizzling dinner.
In the event that they did, although, you possibly can’t blame it on the pandemic. It’s true there was a food-sales share requirement for exhausting liquor bars (25% to 65%, relying on the license), however that rule glided by the wayside years in the past, when West Nile virus and carpal tunnel syndrome have been nonetheless hip; COVID wasn’t even a gleam in SARS’s eye.
The present guidelines are significantly laxer. Bars want to supply a minimum of 5 totally different “meals,” however there’s no rule that claims anybody has to eat them. A meal should be ready on premises (most likely to maintain the operator from simply stashing a bag of Massive Macs behind the bar), and should be an merchandise “that the Fee determines is a essential course…adequate to fulfill the urge for food of 1 particular person.”
For those who’re having bother imagining the OLCC assembly the place they decide what a essential course is, you’re not alone. Apparently it occurred, although. They’re actually fairly clear about what a essential course isn’t: “Meals gadgets which are appetizers, snacks, and desserts don’t qualify as a meal. Examples embrace, however should not restricted to, popcorn, peanuts [and] chips.” Gummy bears are proper out. Tums? Overlook it. And don’t even take into consideration Pop Rocks.
Why isn’t there an in depth menu at each dive on Northeast Sandy, then? Effectively, the 5 meals need to be totally different—however not that totally different. Because the OLCC places it, “a turkey sandwich differs from a salami sandwich.” A cheese get together pizza counts as totally different from a pepperoni get together pizza. Common White Castles are totally different, legally, from cheese ones. That’s 4 gadgets already—throw in a single peanut butter stripper pole and also you’re in enterprise.
Questions? Ship them to dr.know@wweek.com.
