It seems that there is a “bar” called the White House in downtown Austin. I’d never heard of the White House before today; it opened “late last year” according to the paper.
I put “bar” in quotes because they don’t have a liquor license. So how do they sell alcohol?
They don’t. They give it away.
Signs on the walls of the bar, in an old frame house at 95 Rainey St., provide instructions to customers. They are directed to contribute money in exchange for tokens that they drop into a box to vote for one of 108 charities.
How do they make money if they are giving booze away? Volume, volume, volume! Actually, individual “setups” (which I assume consist of ice, cups and mixers) go for $5-$7 each, or as much as your average mixed drink goes for around here, and a “bottomless cup” is $20-$30.
More:
Thomas said she didn’t need a permit because White House sold only the cup, mixer and ice. The bar provided the liquor, wine and beer for free, she said.
TABC, of course, disagrees with this position, and has raided the White House. But they can’t shut it down:
Thomas “does not hold a TABC permit, so we don’t have any specific authority to shut down the location like we might with other TABC-permitted business,” Beck said in an email. “There is a legal way to conduct that business: by giving the drinks away for free without a required donation. For that reason, we can’t assume that because it’s still open means she is still violating the law.”
Mad props to the people behind the White House for figuring out a clever loophole, but I’m not sure I’d want to drink there.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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