“Last year, nearly a dozen bills were introduced by state legislators to address some aspect of New Jersey’s liquor laws. Most of those efforts died when the legislative session ended Tuesday. But supporters of two key proposals — one that would make it easier for small restaurants to obtain liquor licenses, and one that would allow certain supermarkets to hold more than two liquor licenses — say they plan to continue the fight this year, and they are confident about their chances. But they acknowledge they’ve said that before, and New Jersey’s liquor laws have held fast,” as seen in this article.
The article continues, “but some supporters of change think the opposition to liquor-license reform may be weakening. Attorney Ted Zangari, a chairman of the real estate practice at Sill Cummis & Gross in Newark, has been pushing for changes that would create licenses for more than a decade, and said he sees less resistance each year.
‘Never before have I seen the mood on the part of restaurant stakeholders more resigned to the fact that change is inevitable,’ Zangari said. Behind that acceptance, he said, is a realization that the economy — in the era of Uber, e-commerce and industry disruptors — is changing so rapidly that outdated New Jersey laws originating in the post-Prohibition years have to change, too.
‘All of these anachronisms left in New Jersey need to go away if we’re going to maintain any modicum of being a business-friendly state,’ Zangari said.”
