Running a venue ain’t easy in the Commonwealth.



Running a venue ain’t easy in the Commonwealth. We don’t have “bars” here in Virginia, in order for a venue to get and keep a liquor license for mixed beverages they need to sell a 45% ratio of food to booze.

But Delegate David Albo (R-42) hopes to give some leeway to venues in Richmond and Norfolk, as long as they fit at least 1400 people.

“I viewed these places more like concert venues where they’re just gonna have special events,” said Albo in an interview with RVAMag. “People are showing up for a two hour show… that’s different than a restaurant that’s open every single day that happens to have live music.”

The bill, HB 226, “creates an annual mixed beverage performing arts facility license for persons operating food concessions at any performing arts facility located in the City of Norfolk or the City of Richmond” as long as it has a long-term lease, can hold over 1,400 people, and “has been rehabilitated in accordance with historic preservation standards.”

If the venue fits these qualifications, it’ll be able to serve booze without food requirements during hosted events.

This is a great step in pushing for venues to be free of food requirements, specifically The National and the Norva, both of which have 1500 person capacity. But for smaller venues, like The Broadberry, Bandito’s, or Strange Matter, Albo isn’t interested in seeing the capacity requirements drop. At all.

“[If you] expand it to everybody then every single restaurant is gonna have a guy with a guitar and say ‘now we don’t have to have food,’” he said.

“[Smaller venues] are gonna want a bar, they’re not gonna get it. If they want bars they can rewrite the code,” he said.

Albo said he is a fan of live music, and even mentioned former venues in RVA like Kingdom who failed to keep their ratio high enough to keep their license. And as anyone who owns a small business knows, losing your liquor license is a death sentence.

Albo also pointed to the longtime-metal venue Jaxx which became Empire in 2011 (and closed last year) which similarly failed to keep their ratios up.

“[They] couldn’t make a living serving death metal to 17-year-olds and now Springfield is really boring,” he admitted, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to the 1400 person capacity.

Numerous exemptions already exist for different kinds of facilities to skirt the traditional food ratio. There’s a special one for places that hold NASCAR events, another for buildings owned by the government, and even a special permit for amphitheater’s that hold at least 5000 people.

But for folks like Mark Osbourne, one of RVA’s top show bookers for smaller venues, removing the need for food/booze ratios would open up new doors in this city’s music scene. He called the current law “archaic,” and said it was hard running both types of businesses under one roof.

“Government ain’t never looked out for me much,” he joked, before admitting any change in the law “is more likely than getting them to change the whole ballgame.”

Will HB226 play a part in chipping away at Virginia’s archaic booze laws? Only time will tell, and it needs to pass the House Committee on General Laws first.

RVAMag will follow this story as it progresses, so stay tuned.