I'm researching an idea on having a pop up art gallery / party sometime in the next few months downtown. Ideally I would like it to be held at night, hire a DJ, bouncer, bartender and set up a gallery of art in the space. I'd charge a cover charge to cover my costs and so forth. I guess my main question is if I am serving alcohol but not charging per drinks (open bar), does that still require one to have a liquor license, assuming I'm having this in a place that currently doesn't have a license. I figured Stephen or some others on the board would have a good idea about it.
I see Great Minds think alike..... (check your in box)
Thanks for the info Stephen. I may tap you for more info/advice once I think this out more. At this point I was thinking of only doing it once or twice a month if it makes sense financially.
QuoteWell its pretty cut and dry. You cannot serve alcohol if you have to pay in order to enter.
Correct, you can apply for a one-night license... as a non-profit or a fraternal orginization.
You could have the door pay for the benefit of the non-profit or fraternity(like the Elks or Masons, as an example) and get a distributor to donate product to your cause to offset your out-of-pocket causes.
You are free to serve beer and wine if you don't charge admission however. But you do take on potential liability for doing so.
PM'd you
Thanks fieldafm. I actually have a friend that just started a non-profit. Maybe this is a good thing to team up with her one.
Love the idea. If you could get enough space, you could do sort of a PS1. Of course that's on a much grander scale, but The Warm Up is a great time in NYC.
In a perfect world, we would call it PS4 here. ;D
I was the bartender at Bogda. Here's what's up.
Stephen is right, you cannot serve alcohol if you are charging at the door. Free drinks or not. You'll need a license for that.
What you will make money on is the donations. The problem with this is that you will bring money in but never enough to cover the cost of the drinks and paying someone. So get a friend to give their time to do it. If you are selling your art, that can defray the cost of the alcohol.
We were fortunate at the time to get PBR to sponsor us, that worked well. If you can get someone to sponsor you, you'll be golden.
You WILL have freeloaders and they WILL drink all of your beer. There's no way around this.
Bridges, that's definitely the vibe I'm going for. NYC type of feel to it. That's why I'd rather it be in an empty venue instead of an existing space.
Loki, yeah I have a few friends that worked for liquor distributors, so I'm going to reach out to them and see if they still have any connections. As much as I want to do this, I'm not willing to go broke doing it. So having a liquor company to sponsor the night is going to be one of the huge hurdles in pulling this off.
The biggest thing is being prepared for upwards of 200 people coming through that night. Have extra ice on hand, be prepared for disappointment when the drinks run dry, etc. We stuck with the basics on wine "Red, white, and pink. That's all we got, homey." There's no shame in moderating your serving. It's free, people will get what they get. And no matter what, you make sure you see those IDs and keep an eye on who your drinks are going to. The last thing you want are underage drinkers. Don't be afraid to toss people. Good luck and lemme know if you need a hand.
What about the Cork space near Roselle and King. You could probably get one of the brewery's there to help out.
I'm kinda partial to downtown since that's where I live. If successful, I'd like it to become a regular downtown event.