Early last year, the D.C. City Council passed a ban on selling single beers in some D.C. neighborhoods, including Georgetown. Faced with major revenue losses, many business owners immediately sought exceptions to the ban from Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Those who could convince their ANCs that they weren’t selling singles at a price where homeless could buy them—the Logan Circle ANC gave an exception to a Whole Foods to sell pricey microbrews, for example—were by and large successful.

A year later, guess which ANC still isn’t playing ball with one local business?

Yep. Early Friday morning, Georgetown’s ANC met at the offices of the Georgetown Business Improvement District to discuss a request from Dixie Liquor for an exemption to sell high-price craft brews. In a 3-2 vote, the ANC passed a resolution advising the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration not to grant Dixie an exemption, frustrating efforts Dixie began in February 2009.

Back then, in an ANC meeting, Dixie Liquor owner Joy Kurash had argued that Dixie was projected to lose out on $38,000 without the exemption. She also brought samples to emphasize that what she intended to sell was expensive—high-end microbrews that start at $14, culinary liquors, and a Sam Adams “Utopia,” a $180 beer that Sam Adams only brews every other year. The ANC deferred a vote on the exemption.

On Friday, along with Commissioners Ron Lewis, Bill Starrels, and Bill Skelsey, the Citizens Association of Georgetown argued that single-sales of alcohol are directly related to high rates of vagrancy, pointing to the presence of “drifters” in Francis Scott Key Park.

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Hope for single beer sales springs eternal

Everyone’s favorite Advisory Neighborhood Commission returned this summer after their summer recess. Like any good Georgetown reunion, the most exciting parts involved alcohol.

Last year, the D.C. Council approved a ban on the sale of single beers and small bottles of liquor in certain areas of the city, including Georgetown. The law gives ANCs the power to decide on exemptions to the ban, and Georgetown’s ANC is currently in the process of picking a plan of action.

Commissioners Bill Starrels and Tom Birch have been looking into the issue and at the meeting Starrels seemed poised to issue a resolution saying the ANC wouldn’t entertain any exemptions. Starrels said he hasn’t heard many complaints about the ban, and that the number of “homelessly challenged individuals” in Key Park has dwindled.

However, Commissioner Charles Eason said he’d personally heard three complaints, and the owners of Dixie Liquor piped up to protest, saying the ban costs them $40,000 a year. In the end, ANC decided to deliberate on the issue further, and the hope for the grand return of single beers lives on.

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