Another legislative win: Effective July 1, revised food requirements for Indiana brewery taprooms.

Previously, we took a look at the resolution of one long-running annoyance ...

May 20, 2015: PourGate 2013: took two years, but this new law silences Dr. Tom Harris and the Floyd County Health Department.

 ... and now, on to another. The background is here.

September 10, 2014: ON THE AVENUES: Law-abiding by weenie was never this viral.

With all due credit to Rep. Ed Clere and the lobbying effort put forth by the Brewers of Indiana Guild, there'll be a common-sense change to the law requiring Indiana brewery taprooms to furnish food -- those dreaded frozen weenie sandwiches. It takes effect on July 1.

Here is the exact wording.

HOUSE ENROLLED ACT No. 1311

AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning alcohol and tobacco.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana:

SECTION 1. IC 7.1-3-2-7, AS AMENDED BY SEA 297-2015, SECTION 2, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2015]: Sec. 7. The holder of a brewer's permit or an out-of-state brewer holding either a primary source of supply permit or an out-of-state brewer's permit may do the following …

… (5)(G) Sell the brewery's beer by the glass for consumption on the premises. Brewers permitted to sell beer by the glass under this clause must furnish the minimum food requirements prescribed by the commission. make food available for consumption on the premises. A brewer may comply with the requirements of this clause by doing any of the following:

(i) Allowing a vehicle of transportation that is a food establishment (as defined in IC 16-18-2-137) to serve food near the brewer's licensed premises.

(ii) Placing menus in the brewer's premises of restaurants that will deliver food to the brewery.

(iii) Providing food prepared at the brewery.

Food trucks and delivery menus. That's fair, isn't it? Now that Earth Friends Cafe is housed at Bank Street Brewhouse, the point is moot for NABC -- but I didn't urge a solution for us alone. It's about the collective.

Also, there always was a fundamental difference between these two issues.

Ironically, the food requirement is about the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, an Indiana brewer's central governing authority. I respect the ATC and its role, and have tried to organize my professional life accordingly.

Meanwhile, the health department's insolent insistence that it could conjure administratively what couldn't be found in statute was something that needed to be fought hard, and was.

The health department wants beer to be under its domain as food?

Then change the law, but don't wave the magic revenue enhancement wand and expect me to buy it.

Tiring fighting these battles ... but necessary.

Indiana does Platonic Sandwich Dialogues: Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is pizza? Are tacos?

Last year in June, six weeks after Bank Street Brewhouse's kitchen was shuttered, we received a citation from the Indiana Alcohol & Tobacco Commission (ATC) for not meeting the minimum food requirement as defined by 905 IAC 1-20-1. Actually, the food was there, in the freezer, but our employee at the time screwed up, and boom: The bottom line got $250 lighter.

This was particularly annoying for two reasons.

First, from the moment the kitchen change at BSB was announced, I was well aware of the food requirement. The law is 13 years older than me, and this isn't my first rodeo. Second, I'd spoken with the ATC about it to be sure we had the necessary materials to comply with the rule: Frozen weenies, buns, cans of soup, instant coffee, powdered milk and soft drinks enough to serve 25 persons.

Here's the law in its Truman era glory, as originally discussed in a post entitled "Law abiding by weenie never was this viral."

Rule 20. Food Requirements
905 IAC 1-20-1 Minimum menu requirements
Authority: IC 7.1-2-3-7; IC 7.1-3-24-1
Affected: IC 7.1-3-20-9

Sec. 1. Under the qualification requiring that a retail permittee to sell alcoholic beverages by the drink for consumption on the premises must be the proprietor of a restaurant located, and being operated, on the premises described in the application of the permittee; and under the definition of a "restaurant" as "any establishment provided with special space and accommodations where, in consideration of payment, food without lodging is habitually furnished to travelers,"–and "wherein at least twenty-five (25) persons may be served at one time;" the Commission will, hereafter, require that the retail permittee be prepared to serve a food menu to consist of not less than the following:

Hot soups.
Hot sandwiches.
Coffee and milk.
Soft drinks.

Hereafter, retail permittees will be equipped and prepared to serve the foregoing foods or more in a sanitary manner as required by law.

(Alcohol and Tobacco Commission; Reg 36; filed Jun 27, 1947, 3:00 pm: Rules and Regs. 1948, p. 58; readopted filed Oct 4, 2001, 3:15 p.m.: 25 IR 941; readopted filed Sep 18, 2007, 3:42 p.m.: 20071010-IR-905070191RFA; readopted filed Oct 29, 2013, 3:39 p.m.: 20131127-IR-905130360RFA)

This story also was revisited recently in "More about frozen weenies and powdered milk."

Throughout this saga, it may have occurred to more than one reader to ask a simple question.

Is a hot dog really a sandwich? 

Note that our district branch of the ATC overtly accepts the use of hot dogs as sandwiches, so long as they're served warm -- remember, "sandwiches" must be heated, so granny's world-class fridge-aged chicken salad is ineligible ... unless, of course it is eligible, because after all, our district ATC has determined that pizza qualifies as an exception to the rule.

Is gazpacho an exception to the "hot soup" provision? I sense little eagerness to find out. Now that NABC has partnered with Taco Punk for tacos on Friday and Saturday nights at Bank Street Brewhouse, need we ask the next logical question?

Are tacos sandwiches?

If so, then we still must cover the "off" hours when Gabe's not in the kitchen, and so the reign of freezer-cured weenies has not come to an end.

As a disclaimer, understand that here, as always, I have no beef with the Indiana ATC, whose police officers are charged with the task of enforcing laws written by variously informed politicians. The ATC is good people, and the ATC itself probably finds the food requirement a distraction, considering the agency's perennial understaffing and many important items of daily business.

However, until now, probably few of us grasped the philosophical dimensions of the sandwich identity crisis within this specific mechanism of Indiana alcoholic beverage laws. Thanks to JR for pointing it out to me.

Is This a Sandwich? Teaching the Platonic Dialogues through sandwiches, by Dr. M. Ritchey, PhD (Medium)

... I decided to do an exercise in my classroom that would attempt to engage my students more deeply with the socratic method and perhaps help them realize its usefulness in their own lived realities. For some reason, reading about Socrates asking Euthyphro if what is pious is pious because it is loved by the Gods or whether the Gods love that which is pious was not really making much of a dent in my students’ understanding of the world, so instead I had them try to prove that they knew what a sandwich was. I put them in pairs and instructed them to create as clear and literal a definition as they could—one that encompassed all things they knew to be sandwiches, while providing criteria for excluding all those things that were obviously not sandwiches. Furthermore, anything they were going to submit as examples of a “sandwich” also had to pass the thought experiment of imagining ordering “a sandwich” in a restaurant and being brought that thing—because after all, this is an exercise about common knowledge. We all “know” what a sandwich is. Their definition had to somehow account for this shared mental understanding. So “a bowling ball between two pieces of lettuce” would not count, for example.

More about frozen weenies and powdered milk.

Earlier this year after our provisional food menu went viral, I exchanged e-mails with Melinda Haring, the Activism Manager at the Institute for Justice. The IJ is a legitimate entity, and was featured a few days ago as part of an article in the New York Times about city-mandated tourist guide licenses in Savannah, Georgia.

A few days ago, the IJ picked up our statutory compliance menu in a web site posting:

INDIANA LAW REQUIRES BREWHOUSES TO SERVE HOT DOGS AND MILK

If Bank Street Brewhouse’s sleek exterior and silver siding in New Albany, Ind., doesn’t catch your eye, its unusual menu might. Loaded with sarcasm and bite, the menu offers “Chef Campbell’s Soup of the Day,” helpfully “served in a bowl. Your choice of whichever can is on the top of the stack.” 

Alternatively, a hungry diner can sample a hotdog, “microwaved to perfection, including both weenie and bun, sans condiments.” But people don’t go to Bank Street Brewhouse for anything other than beer, making the state’s law requiring any establishment with an alcoholic beverage sales permit to maintain a restaurant on its premises burdensome and out of touch with consumers.

The article includes this bit of encouragement:

Take action: If you own a brewery in Indiana and want to challenge the state’s absurd requirement that you serve hot soup, hot sandwiches, coffee and milk, and soft drinks, please contact us. We can help!

This is the same offer extended to NABC back in September when the story first broke, and as a director on the board of the Brewers of Indiana Guild, and a team player when it comes to industry solidarity, I took the notion of IJ assistance to BIG's legal counsel and discussed the matter with the board.

The conclusion was that with this food requirement issue being a likely candidate for legislative action this coming spring, there isn't any need to contemplate legal maneuverings until the legislative process has played out. I told Melinda this, and she offered to help in the sense of getting word out, which I interpret the IJ's posting to be.

I encourage any Indiana brewery owners reading these words, who might be tempted to contact Melinda and the IFJ, to at least wait until we see how the legislative agenda is progressing. It's just a few more months of freezer burn and stale instant coffee. However, if legislative relief is not forthcoming, then perhaps we all should band together and see what the IJ can do.

It's simple pragmatism: While the food service requirement is a nagging pain in the butt, there are bigger fish to fry when one considers Indiana brewing's legislative goals overall. Let's just keep it in perspective  ... for now.

Pride bar + lounge adds an Indiana Statutory Compliance Restaurant Menu, and it looks familiar.

Matt, the owner of Pride bar + lounge, messaged me to report that the Indiana Alcohol & Tobacco Commission (ATC) recently busted his bar for not having the requisite food requirement stashed in the freezer. Seems the bartender on duty said the "kitchen" was closed, and out came the citation.

Matt and I chatted about what is sufficient to please the state, and he jokingly observed that it would be easier of he might just use the legendary Bank Street Brewhouse Indiana Statutory Compliance Restaurant Menu.

Be my guest, I replied -- with attribution, all is possible.

So, slightly modified for adaptive reuse, here is Pride's new state-mandated food menu.

Seriously, Bank Street Brewhouse is hosting a pop-up Taco Punk kitchen visit this weekend, and maybe some day soon, we can dispense with the freezer pretense. It wouldn't make the state's laws any more rationale, but our drinkers would enjoy the meals. Stay tuned.