No pictures, please!

[BobbyOK]

Well it appears there's another LC policy I've broken a few times. I'm curious how long it's been around, because one night I posted a photo of their "Craft beer" section with mostly empty shelves and Rev in it. Got a response from a higher up at the LC (from his personal Twitter account) asking which store it was. Follwed up in a subsequent week with a near identical photo in a different store. I initially thought he was asking to let them know to fix it. Now I'm wondering if it was something else entirely.

http://halifax.openfile.ca/halifax/text ... sing-joint" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In closing, this seems appropriate:

[mr x]

Costco has the same policy for sure. Behind the times paranoia...

[mr x]

This story was interesting as well.
http://halifax.openfile.ca/halifax/text ... -any-sense" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When asked if he’s ever faced problems with Nova Scotia bureaucrats from Alcohol and Gaming, Tom Wile of Tom’s Little Havana can talk a blue streak.

“They’re basically the anti-revenue department,” he says.

Wile owns one of the most reputable establishments in the city. His former cigar-lounge turned resto/beer-and-whisky establishment eschews marketing to first-year college students and caters to a mostly adult crowd. “We keep our nose clean,” he says. But Wile, who’s tended bar since 1985, says he’s seen regulations that stop bar culture in Halifax from thriving.

In Nova Scotia, eating establishments can serve alcohol through the day with food. If they also have a lounge license, the premises that operated as an eating establishment may switch over and become a bar starting at 9pm. So when Wile started applying for a license for his bar, he applied for an eating establishment license for the afternoon—common practice for bar owners.

But Wile says that when he brought his menu in to be looked at by the Review Board, they said that he didn’t have enough items on his menu to be recognized as an eating establishment.

Wile says he asked how many items the bar would need to serve. “Well, [liquor licensing regulations] can’t tell you that,” he says. “So the number is between three and infinity.”

Tom’s is just one example of vague restrictions placed on business owners who serve alcohol. In January of 2011, the University of King’s College bar found themselves in a pouring contest with the liquor compliance board, when they disagreed with a local liquor inspector about the legal price of their pitchers. And a local art space’s ability to hold parties or art events has also been impacted.

Clare Waqué is the owner of the Bus Stop Theatre, a playhouse and performance space that used to stay profitable by hosting occasional dance party fundraisers—until she was informed that such fundraisers were not permitted within the terms of her license.

Waqué says the dance parties used to be a staple of the Bus Stop’s income. During one art party or dance fundraiser, she says, “the Bus Stop would make $700-$1,500 on the bar. You have 3 or 4 of those a month, and we’d be making enough money to stay in business.”

Waqué says she was since told that the theatre’s license to serve alcohol is meant to allow it to operate only as a concession stand for live performances, and does not allow patrons to drink while dancing or walking around.

Waqué says that she was told DJs and circus performers, for example, do not count as live artists, but a screening of Rocky Horror where audience participated would be permitted.

When asked if a DJ or electronic musician that used turntables would be considered live entertainment, however, communications representative Susan Mader-Zinck, on behalf of Nova Scotia Alcohol and Gaming, said they would be.

For an experimental theatre space like the Bus Stop, these unclear guidelines can be a challenge. “What they want to see is art that happens behind the fourth wall,” says Waqué. “And that's really hard for the Bus Stop, because we like art to not be behind the fourth wall.”

Maryann Daye is co-owner of The Company House, a North End bar and performance space that opened in winter of 2009.

Daye, like Waqué and Tom, says she follows the rules and hasn’t had any major issues since opening, but points to what she sees as a structural problem: “It’s a really tough business to be in from the perspective that you can’t challenge the people that are enforcing,” she says.

NSAG's Mader-Zinck said business owners who feel they've been treated unfairly do have venues for recourse. “They may contact the Regional Manager, Investigation and Enforcement, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations.” If a bar owner is unsatisfied with the Review Board's interpretation of a licensing regulation, they may put forth an appeal to be heard by the Provincial Court of Appeal, she says---the highest court in Nova Scotia.

But for Tom's Wile, the goal of alcohol regulations should be to prevent unreasonable or public drunkenness. But he says the ‘prudent man rule’—which says bar owners cannot let their patrons get excessively inebriated—should be adequate, he says. “That rule applies if it’s one in the afternoon or three in the morning.”