Peabody Close To Banning Bring-Your-Own-Booze At Restaurants

PEABODY, MA -- The days of brown-bagging a bottle of wine to a Peabody restaurant may be coming to an end. City Council is set to vote on an ordinance that would ban BYOB. The new rules were unanimously approved by the city licensing commission in September and now head to City Council for final approval.

The rules were approved by the city licensing commission at a Sept. 25 public attended. No members of the public commented on the proposal. In a letter to City Council, the commission also sent a letter from the city solicitor endorsing the new rules.

According to meeting minutes from the Sept. 25 hearing, the licensing board was seeking to close a loophole. Because the city had no BYOB ordinance, there was no oversight -- any restaurant could have conceivably allowed customers to bring their own wine, beer and liquor to dinner. The new rules, therefore, do not prohibit the city from revisiting the rules in the future.

Peabody City Council will consider the new rules at its meeting Thursday night.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).