Michael Anyone who runs a restaurant experiences the jungle of regulations with brutal intensity. It is by no means a given that a restaurant is allowed to serve alcohol. For this, a so-called liquor license is required, which is only issued in the case of a new opening if no one in the immediate vicinity of the establishment raises an objection. This could involve hundreds of people! In the book Suppenküche Inc., the founder of the German restaurant "Suppenküche" in San Francisco describes adventures he has experienced in this regard. Any restauran planning to pour alcoholic drinks needs a license with the number 41, the "On-sale beer and wine - eating place" from the "California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control".
On sf.everyblock.com, you can see that in the month of February 2009, for example, a total of 50 licenses citywide changed their status -- because they are not only issued but also revoked in case of violations. A Thai restaurant on Valencia Street, for instance, recently had to put up a huge sign stating that its alcohol license was revoked "indefinitely" (see Figure 2). If alcohol is sold to people under 21 years of age or after 2 a.m. (curfew in San Francisco), such things can happen. However, a few days later, the sign was gone, and there was nothing about the incident on the internet, so it seems they had a dispute with the authorities and then reached an agreement.
But they can also make it work without a license: For example, until a few years ago, there was a sushi restaurant at the corner of Church and Market Street that didn't have a license to serve alcohol. It was very cheap, served good sushi, and was very popular with young people. If you wanted alcohol, you would go to the convenience store next door, buy beer or wine in a brown paper bag, and then place it on the table in the restaurant. The staff made sure that no one removed the brown bag from their drink. You had to sip from the wrapped bottles, otherwise the restaurant would have been in trouble!