Nashville Beer Board Targets Rogue Caterers

Its been pretty easy over the past couple of years to find someone to provide beer service for Nashville businesses that cannot get a beer permit, for whatever reason. Some folks with beer catering permits have regularly allowed other businesses to use their catering permit when the business failed to apply for a beer permit on time or had some other issue that left the bar high and dry. This "service" was usually offered for a hefty fee.

A few folks really abused the catering permit by "catering" beer to nightclubs that did not qualify for beer.

On October 13, 2011, the Beer Board adopted a rule aimed at eliminating the practice. We hear that the beer inspectors have been out enforcing the new rule.

The beer catering law was intended to be a compliment to the ABC catering permit for wine and spirits. Before Metro adopted the law, caterers were left to play fast and loose with the law and provide beer service, despite the lack of any means to legally sell beer at catered events. Most towns have not even addressed the issue and have not specifically legalized beer catering.

We applaud the Metro Beer Board for tackling this issue. The catering law was intended to allow restaurants to provide adult beverages with food when catering. It was never intended as a way around regular licensing.