To-Go Cocktails May Be Sticking Around In Oregon After New Law Passes

Following in Washington state's footsteps, Oregon lawmakers passed new legislation to keep to-go cocktail around forever, according to KATU.

The state House passed Senate Bill 317 on Tuesday (June 1), which allows businesses with on-premise sales licenses to keep selling mixed drinks in sealed containers for takeout and delivery indefinitely. To-go cocktails became an option for restaurants after Gov. Kate Brown passed an executive order to help them during the coronavirus pandemic.

"To-go cocktails aren’t going to save our businesses as a whole, but we need every single tool that’s available to us to be able to make our margins look a little bit better, because we are operating on the smallest of margins," Ricky Gomez, who owns Palomar, told reporters. "This is something that will help with that and help consumers to stay outside."

For the bill to become law, the governor will have to sign off on it.

Restaurant owners in Oregon said they plan on coming up with more options and better packaging for these alcoholic drinks.

Other states have been mulling or pushing for takeout drinks to be permanent, including Colorado and Pennsylvania.

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