Cate and Chad Battles, owners of The Bywater, say the law is also a hardship on business owners. Although The Bywater operates as a lifetime membership club, Cate Battles says they currently have more than 20,000 membership applications on file, all of which must be directly accessible for ABC review any time the bar is open. Battles enters all the applicants into a computer spreadsheet, which staff members can access on iPads and iPods behind the bar and at the door.
“It’s not that I have any issue obeying the rule, I just don’t understand why it’s there” says Celeste Adams of Burger Bar, a beer and shot joint that has been around for nearly 70 years. “It happens every single time someone walks in the door. ‘Do you have a membership?’ ‘Would you like to buy a membership?’ Or ‘do you have your membership card?’ And then people don’t have their membership cards on them, and they have to fill out the whole form again and pay for a new card. Or they have 35 different memberships in their wallet, their wallet is huge and they don’t want to carry it. I just don’t necessarily know what the point is anymore.”
So now that this is happening, here’s what I’ve learned and some tips:
Instead of racking up tons of membership cards and carrying them around in your wallet or losing them somewhere in your car, you can keep a photo of your membership card on your phone. Pro tip: Save the photo in your favorites.
1. You don’t have to be 21. You can be 18 and up and still be a member if the establishment allows people under the drinking age.
2. Members can bring up to five guests with them. All guests have to sign in on the guest log.
3. If you’re inside a “private club” and an ABC officer asks to see your membership card, you need to be able to show it or qualify as someone’s guest. (This is rare, but could happen.)
4. Breweries are different and don’t classify as “private clubs.”
5. There are a crazy amount of alcohol laws made a long time ago that really don’t apply anymore because, well, it’s 2016 and time has turned the tide.
