Just out of curiosity what is your states liquor laws? It seems to really vary state to state & the Orrin Hatch post got me wondering.

California

7 days a week/ 365 days a year up until 2am although most bars cut off at 1:40ish (a few cities cut off at 12). Liquor sales start back up at 6am

There's no state run stores just regular liquor stores, grocery stores, gas stations etc.

There is a big difference between a beer & wine venders license & hard liquor license so a lot of restaurants don't get the hard liquor one. 18 year olds can serve in restaurants but can't work in bars or drink.

Fake ID's are easy to get thanks to the states huge illegal population.

next week: state sex laws & you (How young can you can you go?) [/i]

I'm not too sure about the actual laws...but they are pretty archaic here in Philly.

Can't buy beer or wine in a convenience store/grocery store...nobody pointed this one out to me when I moved here.

Hated being in Michigan for 3 years, no booze anywhere sold after 2 AM.

I'm of St. Louis now and on my side of the river, we got 24 hour bars and strip joints open 'til 5 AM. Sometimes, it's good to come home.

You can buy booze or beer wherever, gas stations, grocery stores, etc...

St. Louis bars close at either 1:30 or 3, depending on the licence they have. Other stores stop selling at 2, I believe, and start selling at 10, but rule breakers are easy enough to find.

Yeah, Pennsy. Laws suck. Gotta go to a distributor to get cases of beer. But, you CAN get takeout beer from bars to keep the party going.

GA is pretty straightforward, except for the odd dry counties or counties/jurisdictions that don't allow liquor by the drink. Can't by on Sundays, but most places that serve food (51-49 sales rules, i think) Also, in Peachtree City, you can buy at midnight on Sundays. A run that has been made MANY times.

Alabama has more dry counties, but mostly the same laws. Except, they have ABC (state-run) liquor stores. And the selection sucks.

OR - pretty typical I guess - beer and wine at the grocer stores, liquor at state run liquor stores which have pretty lame hours.

I think bars have to stop pouring drinks by 2 am too.

The most backward liquor state I ever lived in was hands-down North Carolina. I lived in Winston-Salem, which was in Forsyth County. Apparently city liquor laws, county liquor laws and state liquor laws can all conflict with each other.

In W-S, you could buy beer in the store, any day of the week. Liquor was sold at state-run stores. For businesses, if food sales constituted 50% or more of your revenue, you could serve beer. If you sold liquor or food did not constitute 50% of your revenue, it was called a "club" and you'd have to have a membership at the club to go in and drink. All the windows had to be blacked out as well, and visitors were given a key (I'm not kidding) to get into the door of the club.

I think Georgia recently (within the last year or so) finally approved having beers with 6% alc content sold in their stores. NC tops out around 5% I believe.

edit: I've also heard that in South Carolina, bars can't pour from regular bottles. They have to mix drinks with those little bottles like they serve on airplanes.

Ran into this issue whilst attending Phish Winter Tour 2003 at the Spectrum. Went to like 5 gas stations before someone told us the deall. Of course the brew was hella cheap compared to Atlanta prices. Goddam Sin Tax.

Georgia did indeed just pass higher alcohol content beers. Hilariously, the argument against it was that kids would get access to it. Like a kid shoulder tappin outside the store is going to sheel out $9 for a 22 of Le Fin Du Monde.

South Carolina did serev out of airplane bottles, which many people mistakenly beleived meant they ONLY sold those, even in liquor stores. I do believe that this law has been repealed effective this year.

Utah has gotta take the cake for screwy liquor laws. The waitress was all set to write down my order at a chinese restaurant in Provo when I asked for a beer. She totally freaked out, threw her hands in the air including throwing the pen and was all "no beer, no beer" You'd think I'd asked for heroin or something...

They repealed the law, but it won't be effective for another two years. Then bars have the option of free pour or airplane bottles. This I got from a bartender in Charleston over New Years, so I guess it's pretty credible.

Oh you pacific northwest people have WEIRD liquor laws.

Portland- hard liquor at state stores only, beer/wine until 6pm?
Vancouver- the cost of a six-pack of beer is what us Californians pay for a twelve pack here!

All I remember was being completely frustrated with weird liquor laws on my trip up there.

So far, Vegas has the best liquor laws- serve all night!

puma - i am pretty sure you can buy beer and wine at almost any time at a grocery store. at least until as late as I am awake.

most states I have been to have a law where you can only buy hard liquor at a special store. california is an exception which I do miss.

This is true. There is no 6 pm cutoff for beer/wine sales in Portland. Don't know where you went to experience this.

It's definitely more difficult in Provo, and Utah does have it's quirks, but it's still very easy to get anything you want just about anytime, at equivalent prices to other states. "Real" beer (i.e >3.2% alcohol content) is more expensive, but hard alcohol and wine are the same price as any state. Yeah, there are state liquor stores, but they're open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday---if you can't work around that schedule, then I'd say you're too busy for your own good.

We're certainly no Nevada, but I would argue that some of the southern states (as evidenced above) make things much more difficult than Utah.

Cheers.

Damn it! Someone lied to us... when we arrived to our hotel, we were on a madhunt for liquor. Maybe it was hard liquor? Oh, I don't remember.

and, you can drink in public.

Now, that might be true. Most liquor stores close around 7 pm here. Sucks big time. They've recently decided to open certain liquor stores on Sundays (in the past, they were all closed on Sunday).

Wisco -- > bars stay open 'til 2 am Su - R (R = Thurs), 2:30 am F and Sa
alcohol sold any grocer's store that has a license, i.e. supermarket, convenience mart, gas-station, pharmacy
state also leads nation in per capita consumption of brandy (by some surveys)
minors can drink at home or at supper-clubs/bars/restaurants, if with parent or guardian
bal for dui recently lowered from .10 to .08
also, not a drop law applies -- any minor, if without parent/guardian, and whether driving or just chilling in the crib with the brahs and bitches, can be cited for consumption underage, no matter the bal