Another round on me, bartender? Not in North Carolina, unless this bill passes

RALEIGH -- Bar customers could order up to four drinks at once, and liquor stores could open on Sunday afternoons under a wide-ranging alcohol regulation bill that’s getting a big push from the hospitality and retail industries.

House Bill 536 is scheduled for its first hearing Tuesday in the House ABC committee. It would change a current regulation that prevents restaurants and bars from serving a customer more than one alcoholic drink at a time. The law is intended to prevent someone from buying drinks on behalf of someone who’s underage, but Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Henderson County Republican, said it creates a hassle when a group of people wants to send someone to the bar for another round. Each person has to make a separate trip to the bar.

“It’s nuts,” said McGrady, who sponsored HB 536. “In my view, it’s a silly sort of Prohibition-era type regulation.”

HB 536 would also create a “bar” category in state regulations — a missing category that forces bars that don’t serve food to be licensed as private clubs. That’s why some bars require new customers to pay a few dollars at the door as a “membership fee.”

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article229736729.html