Let the Liquor License Moratorium Die

Enough is enough. Look forward, not backward. What began in 1989 to squash a boisterous Georgetown playground, the Georgetown liquor license moratorium has accomplished its mission and now outlived its usefulness. If no action is taken, it will expire April 3, 2016.

Times and styles have changed. People are better educated about food and wine. Restaurant-goers want quality and ambience. Celebrity chefs may have their TV shows, but they are also responsible business owners and partners in their neighborhoods.

Present liquor and drunk driving laws are sufficient. While Georgetown’s community groups are about to agree on a list of standard operating procedures for bars and restaurants, it seems irrelevant. We are far beyond dive bars and watering holes. Rhino Bar is now a Club Monaco. The old Nathan’s space is now owned by Under Armour.

Of the nearly 2,000 restaurant or tavern (C or D) licenses in Washington, D.C., Georgetown has limited itself to 68. Its moratorium zone, according to the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, “extends approximately 1,800 feet in all directions from the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and N Street, NW.” There are establishments exempt from the moratorium — and thus, there are more licenses in use. They include, according to ABRA, “all hotels and those [establishments] in or to be located in Georgetown Park, Georgetown Park II, Prospect Place Mall, Georgetown Court and Washington Harbour.”

All agree that the moratorium has stifled the creation of new restaurants, erecting unfair barriers for quality players. Town House Restaurant, of John and Karen Urie Shields fame, abandoned its proposed Potomac Street location, still empty two years later. Retail expert Iraklis Karabassis, who helped launch Café Milano, has faced obstacles to opening his own Prospect Street restaurant.

Meanwhile, the rest of the city has exploded with new eateries, including Rose’s Luxury on Capitol Hill, Bon Appetit’s 2014 Restaurant of the Year.

Georgetown is well aware of its high-end competition, including CityCenter and the $6 billion Wharf development on the Southwest waterfront. Certainly, we are and want to be seen as welcoming to new businesses (Buongiorno, Via Umbria!). The next puzzler is: Where are the spaces for destination restaurants? South of M Street? The empty Benetton space? The Powerhouse? The former Neams/Marvelous Market property?

Almost 27 years later, the moratorium has beome a serious impediment to Georgetown’s economic growth — and therefore the quality of retail life here. Let it go, and let’s foster the future.