Micro Brewery

[Stephen Bias RA]

Opinion on the proper use plumbing classification of a Micro Brewery.
NSPC 2012: USE: A-2: Restaurant... vs. A-2: Nightclub, Bar Tavern
Premises includes an exterior beer garden with tables and chairs.

Thanks

 

[steveray]

If they don't serve food its a bar

 

[Stephen Bias RA]

If they don't serve food its a bar

 

[Stephen Bias RA]

Appreciate your opinion.
Where can I find this determination?

Thanks

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

If they don't serve food its a bar

Many places would say if they derive more than 50% of their income from selling alcoholic drinks, it's a bar even they also serve [some] food.

Appreciate your opinion.
Where can I find this determination?

It's not quantified in the codes, and the Commentary on plumbing fixture requirements doesn't address the distinction between bars and restaurants. That means the determination is made by the building official. Personally, I don't think there's much question what a micro-brewery is. We have a couple of them in the town where I work. Nobody has ever tried to claim that they were restaurants.

 

[jar546]

Opinion on the proper use plumbing classification of a Micro Brewery.
NSPC 2012: USE: A-2: Restaurant... vs. A-2: Nightclub, Bar Tavern
Premises includes an exterior beer garden with tables and chairs.

Thanks

At the end of the day, despite the presence of rotating food trucks or occasional meal offerings, a microbrewery’s core function remains focused on serving alcohol—hence the designation as a brewery. Patrons may be seated, eating, and enjoying a drink, but the primary draw and purpose revolve around alcohol service, not food.

 

[tmurray]

If it is a bar that also sells some food, it is a bar.
If it is a restaurant that sells beer, it is a restaurant.

How different would the business look if you eliminated the food? Would it be essentially the same? What about the beer? Would it be mostly the same?

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

I stumbled across something that may shed some light on this. I was researching something entirely different, but my search turned up a letter pertaining to a zoning application for a restaurant, and there was apparently significant doubt on the part of the zoning commission that the proposed use would be, in fact, a restaurant -- as opposed to a bar. A town attorney drafted a letter to the zoning commission setting forth three considerations in making a determination:

It remains suggested that in articulating its decision denying or approving the application, or
in making additional inquiry, that this Board might consider the three (3) factors articulated by the
Superior Court--factors which include reference to the 1936 Supreme Court decision and the
current statutory definition of a “restaurant”--for determining whether the proposed use is a
restaurant: 1) whether the service of food be sufficient to afford assurance of a bona fide restaurant
business instead of a mere pretext for the obtaining of a permit to sell alcoholic liquor as principal
purpose and enterprise, including the regular service of hot meals; 2) whether the applicant has a
dining room open to the public as required by Connecticut General Statutes Section 30-22, and 3)
whether the establishment as proposed will be in the business of regularly serving hot meals and
not serving food simply as an incidental to serving beverages.

Apparently Connecticut has a statutory definition of "restaurant," which reinforces the concept that the principle purpose of a restaurant is serving meals, whereas the principle purpose of a bar/tavern is serving alcoholic beverages -- with or without noshes on the side.

Here's Connecticut's statutory definition of "restaurant:":

“Restaurant” means space that (1) is located in a suitable and permanent building, (2) is kept, used, maintained, advertised and held out to the public to be a place where hot meals are regularly served, (3) has no sleeping accommodations for the public, (4) has an adequate and sanitary kitchen and dining room, (5) employs at all times an adequate number of employees, and (6) if such space has no effective separation between a barroom and a dining room, includes at least four hundred square feet of dining space, and seating for at least twenty persons, in the dining room.