DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa law taking effect Thursday will allow bars and restaurants to permanently sell cocktails to go.
During the pandemic, to help restaurants who were ordered to shut down, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order allowing them to sell cocktails to go.
This new law will allow that practice to continue.
It also allows for alcohol to be delivered to people.
Bubba, a restaurant in downtown Des Moines, prides itself in serving southern comfort foods and classic cocktails.
Bubba's founding partner Chris Diebel said many restaurants like his make a good chunk of their revenue from alcohol sales.
"Most restaurants in this market are not designed to go food alone,” Diebel said.
Diebel said the state allowing to-go cocktails sales during the pandemic helped them to keep their doors open.
"It really was the difference between being in the black and being in the red on certain days of the week,” Diebel said.
There are liability concerns Diebel has.
According to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, both third-party delivery services and people holding alcohol licenses or permits are responsible or ensuring how old the recipient of an order is.
The department says there are civil and criminal penalties for providing alcohol to someone underage.
The law requires a valid form of ID to be presented upon delivery and the recipient has to sign for the order.
In order to sell alcohol for on-premises consumption, a person must be 18 or older.
To deliver alcohol, a person must be 21 or older.
Drizly, a delivery app that delivers alcohol, is only servicing West Des Moines right now, but they have plans to expand soon.
“We have a handful of folks that we are in conversation with right now that are looking to join in the next couple of weeks that are really excited about the third-party delivery option,” Drizly’s director of sales Blaine Grinna said.
This new law also expands the hours for alcohol sales on Sundays.
Starting this week you can start making purchases at 6 a.m. Before it was 8.