New Jersey bars could keep cocktails to go

In New Jersey, the practical change is simple: the bottle or mixed drink a customer buys at a bar, restaurant or hotel could keep making its way home. A bill backed by Assembly Member Luanne Peterpaul and co-sponsored by Katie Brennan would make permanent the pandemic-era rule that lets a defined set of license holders sell alcohol for off-premises consumption and deliver it to adult customers at home.

The bill covers plenary retail consumption, hotel or motel consumption, seasonal retail consumption and concessionaire permits. Those licensees could sell alcohol in original containers, in other closed and sealed containers, and in certain mixed distilled drinks that are also sealed, then deliver them directly to a consumer’s New Jersey residence if the buyer is 21 or older.

How the drink gets home

The packaging rules are not loose. Non-original containers would have to be tamper-evident, and mixed distilled drinks in those containers would be capped at 16 fluid ounces. Delivery could happen by common carrier or by other means, but the destination still has to be a New Jersey home and the recipient still has to be an adult.

That matters because the bill is not creating a blanket right for every alcohol seller. It ties the privilege to specific license types, so the benefit lands where bars, restaurants and hotels already have regulated relationships with customers.

A narrow sample lane

The bill also keeps sampling on a short leash. For malt beverages, sampling would mean either a nominal-charge sale or a free open container, and the glass or can could not exceed four ounces.

Available key vote records show the bill advanced without recorded no votes.

A secondary provision would clarify that certain inactive licenses may not expire, but the consumer-facing story is the same one regular customers would notice first: more flexibility to buy sealed drinks for home, without turning the state’s alcohol rules into a free-for-all.