imported post
Definitions from VA Code 4.1-100:
"Restaurant" means, for a beer, or wine and beer license or a limited mixed beverage restaurant license,
any establishment provided with special space and accommodation, where, in consideration of payment, meals or other foods prepared on the premises are regularly sold.
"Restaurant" means, for a mixed beverage license other than a limited mixed beverage restaurant license, an established place of business (i) where meals with substantial entrees are regularly sold and (ii) which has adequate facilities and sufficient employees for cooking, preparing, and serving such meals for consumption at tables in dining areas on the premises, and includes establishments specializing in full course meals with a single substantial entree.
"Club" means any private nonprofit corporation or association which is the owner, lessee, or occupant of an establishment operated solely for a national, social, patriotic, political, athletic, or other like purpose, but not for pecuniary gain, the advantages of which belong to all of the members. It also means the establishment so operated. A corporation or association shall not lose its status as a club because of the conduct of charitable gaming conducted pursuant to Article 1.1:1 (§
18.2-340.15 et seq.) of Chapter 8 of Title 18.2 in which nonmembers participate frequently or in large numbers, provided that no alcoholic beverages are served or consumed in the room where such charitable gaming is being conducted while such gaming is being conducted and that no alcoholic beverages are made available upon the premises to any person who is neither a member nor a bona fide guest of a member.
Any such corporation or association which has been declared exempt from federal and state income taxes as one which is not organized and operated for pecuniary gain or profit shall be deemed a nonprofit corporation or association.
Note that 18.2-308 J3 prohibits CC in a restaurant
as defined above, and also note that the definition of a restaurant for a beer/wine license does NOT specify that a "restaurant" license be issued; it merely requires "special space and accomodation", and not that meals be provided, but merely "other foods".
Some lawyers might argue that a stadium which serves beer and pretzels to those sitting in stadium seating would therefore constitute a "restaurant" even if the concessionaire does not possess a restaurant license from the VABC. Caution is indicated, because unfortunately, our legislators do not possess the gift of clarity when writing bills. An outdoor festival in a city park, for instance, should be okay for CC since meals and other foods are NOT "regularly sold" there. You get the idea...
We've been looking at ways to clarify this, but the best thing to do is just get rid of the restaurant ban on CC altogether.