How to ensure a tap room isn't a bar (In the eyes of the city council)

[WitsEnd]

The Industrial Park in our town has a number of buildings that are perfect for setting up a production brewery. The licensing is in-progress for on-sale pints and off-sale growlers.

The city council is very touchy when it comes to retail sales in our industrial park, although there are businesses that do a portion of "wholesale" that is indeed retail. Their main issue is traffic management (of all things).

I'm anticipating the question of how a brewery taproom that is allowed to sell pints and growlers will not turn into a 6-day-a-week bar. Hopefully it won't come to it, but if there is bargaining to be had and concessions to be made, I'd like to hear about options.

I have heard of one instance where people sat on sacks of grain on top of kegs because "seating" was not allowed in the taproom. Thought was, as soon as you give someone a place to sit, it's a bar.

Any other creative ideas that I might want at my disposal?

I want to stay away from restricted hours, if at all possible.

[yap]

i can't give you any specific advice because (generally speaking) when you are dealing with a local govt you are generally dealing with a bunch of people who like to make things up as they go regardless of how irrational their ideas may be (and ignorant of the law). what has worked for others may not work for your particular set of wanna-be bureaucrats...

If tasting rooms are governed by your state liquor control, I would present the city with the states requirements to show them that someone is already regulating it (so hopefully they will stay out of it). If they are worried about traffic, well that will depend on the size of your taproom. If it will only hold 20 people then they shouldn't be too worried. if you are going to have occupancy for 200 then its going to be tougher sledding....

you mentioned not wanting to have restricted hours. if you plan to be open six days from noon to 2 am, then i would say you will be considered a bar in just about anyone's eyes. if you plan to only be open weekends then i would tell them that (but don't agree to it as a hard rule if you can help it). if parking is the concern you may have to agree not to be open mon-fri until 5:00 after all the other businesses are closed. not sure that you want a taproom open at 2:00 in the afternoon on a tuesday anyway. but if you do, well i'm not sure what to tell you on that one...

i would push the (presumably low) occupancy and operating hours as an argument that traffic won't be an issue.

[MikeRoy]

First off, I would never want to limit anyone's ability to increase revenue...but what about having a house policy pint limit (say 3,maybe less if higher ABV..I believe Montana has this). It shows to the city council that you want people to come to the brewery,try your product, but you're not interested in having people in for long durations. This decreases the interest for customers to want to linger in the tasting room for extended periods of time thus not tying up parking for as long and also should decrease the chances of your staff having to deal with customers who are seeking to really tie one on.

[WitsEnd]

Thanks for the input. I like both the size restriction and pint limit suggestions. Both very good ideas that I can suggest, if needed.

Another option I had thought of was restricting hours to off-sale hours.
Our lovely state has the liquor stores closing at 10pm and closed on Sundays.

I want people coming to the brewery primarily for growler fills anyway, so being closed when I can't sell growlers is not an issue for me. Honestly, I can't really see being open much outside the hours of 4-7pm, just enough to catch people on their way home or after the evening meal.

[yap]

Limiting consumption is a good idea, but (to play devil's advocate) I could foresee the city then asking the next logical question of "how will we ensure that you are abiding by this self-imposed rule?" Since there is no law on the books for them to enforce this requirement they may decide to make one or come up with some other arcane rule so they can keep track of what you're doing.

I would push the hours issue. If you are only open for 3 hours a day or so then you could probably argue that will limit consumption in and of itself. That and your overall size will dictate the parking situation.

Good Luck. Just remember that when dealing with small town government logic and reasoning are generally foreign concepts to them....