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Effort to water down Virginia’s alcohol to food sales ratio shelved for a year

The owner of The Tobacco Company restaurant in Richmond testified against removing the state's alcohol-to-food sales ratio.
Brad Kutner
/
Radio IQ
The owner of The Tobacco Company restaurant in Richmond testified against removing the state's alcohol-to-food sales ratio.

A bill that would have all but done away with the state’s alcohol to food sales ratio for restaurants was killed on the House floor Tuesday.

Despite support from some freshmen elected officials, a bill that would have made it easy to sell more expensive brands of alcohol without selling more food in Virginia is dead for a year.

The news comes after Fairfax Delegate David Bulova moved to have the bill sent back to a committee from the House floor, effectively killing it for the session.

“We have a long-standing policy of restaurants, not bars, how do you deal with what I think are some genuine concerns about how that ratio affects a certain subset of restaurants while also making sure we don’t take a shotgun to the approach and open ourselves up to unintended consequences?” The Delegate told Radio IQ after the session adjourned Tuesday.

Back in the Senate, Orange County Senator Bryce Reeves was still in session and unable to provide comment in person after his bill’s demise.

But in a written statement Reeves told Radio IQ “It’s unfortunate that a pro-business, red-tape slashing bill died by process today rather than risking a vote and its potential passage.”

Reeves has been trying to change the state’s alcohol to food ratio for about a decade and this year's effort came closest to success. He blamed advocates from the Virginia Restaurant Association for convincing the House to give it the ax.

In a written statement, association director Mike Byrn praised the bill's death, calling it “good news for restaurant operators in the Commonwealth Of Virginia.”

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Brad Kutner is Radio IQ's reporter in Richmond.