TABC guides
An owner confirms a location is "wet" and assumes the question is closed: alcohol is allowed, so any alcohol permit should work. Then the package store…
A bar owner assumes that once they hold a liquor permit, staying open until 2:00 a.m. is just a matter of keeping the lights on. It…
The most expensive wet-and-dry mistake is also the most avoidable: signing a lease for a space that cannot host the permit the business needs. By the…
To-go cocktails and wine with a takeout order became a familiar sight during and after the pandemic, and the familiarity created a false impression: that any…
A brewery opens a taproom and pours pints to walk-in customers. A winery sells bottles at the cellar door. A distillery hands a visitor a bottle…
A hotel is not a single bar. It is a property with several service points, each of which may involve alcohol: a lobby or rooftop bar,…
A common reason local certification stalls is not a legal problem with the location but an incomplete or inconsistent file. Cities and counties certify a specific,…
A Texas distillery can sell some of its spirits directly to visitors, but it is not a liquor store. The Distiller's and Rectifier's Permit (D) authorizes…
Texas offers many alcohol permits, and they are not interchangeable. The Mixed Beverage Permit (MB) is the one that authorizes full-bar service, and confusing it with…
The Private Club Registration Permit (N) is easy to misread as a label for an upscale bar. Its real function is narrower and more specific: it…
A bar is not licensed by a single all-purpose "liquor license." For a spirits-serving bar or nightclub, the core permit is usually the starting point, and…
A brewpub is not the same thing as a brewery. The Brewpub License (BP) is a retail-plus-production hybrid: it attaches to a retail permit and lets…
When a business applies for a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) permit, one document sits at the point where state licensing meets local authority: the Certificate…
A Texas winery can do more than make wine, but not without limits. The Winery Permit (G) authorizes wine production and, under defined conditions, a set…
A convenience store or gas station that sells beer and wine is doing something different, in licensing terms, from a bar that pours a glass of…
If a business plans to serve beer and wine but not liquor, the Wine and Malt Beverage Retailer's Permit (BG) is usually the relevant permit. The…
When a single operator runs a venue with several service areas, such as multiple rooms, bars, or stages, licensing is not as simple as one permit…
It is tempting to assume that local certification works the same way everywhere in Texas. It does not. While the statute sets a general baseline, the…
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's online system, the Alcohol Industry Management System (AIMS), walks applicants through a sequence of steps and prompts for local certification (the…
A Texas liquor store is not simply a retail shop that happens to sell spirits. The Package Store Permit (P) sits in its own regulatory category,…
The L-Cert (Certificate of Local Compliance) is not a single signature. It is a set of separate sign-offs, each from a different office, each measured against…
Because TABC cannot issue a permit without the L-Cert (Certificate of Local Compliance), a stalled certification does not slow part of the application; it halts the…
There is no single "restaurant permit" in Texas. The right choice for a food-serving business depends on two things: whether the venue will serve spirits, and…
One of the more surprising obstacles in a TABC application is a hold that has nothing to do with the new business at all. The Texas…
A Texas brewery does not sell its beer however it likes. The Brewer's License (BW) authorizes manufacturing and, under defined conditions, some direct sales to consumers…