Permit or license: which does your establishment need? The short answer is, “it depends.”
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code regulates alcoholic beverages in the state, requiring businesses to have specific authorization to engage in the alcoholic beverage industry. If you intend to buy alcohol for resale or sell alcohol, you absolutely must have specific authority from the state of Texas.
Although people in the industry commonly use the term “Texas liquor license” interchangeably to describe both permits and licenses, the two are not one and the same.
For example, your favorite bar that sells everything from Titos vodka to Bud Light does not have a Texas liquor license. Instead, it most likely has a mixed beverage permit — the most common permit held by bars and even restaurants.
TEXAS LIQUOR LICENSE VS. PERMIT
Licenses generally grant the authority to buy and sell beer, whereas permits grant the same authority to everything else.
The biggest exceptions to that rule, however, are also two of the most common permits in Texas — the mixed beverage permit and the private club registration permit (or private club permit as it is commonly called). Each of these permits allow its holders to sell all legal alcoholic beverages, including beer. The mixed beverage permit does so in “wet” areas and the private club in “dry” areas. For more information and a list of wet and dry areas in Texas, visit the TABC website.
So how does this happen? Where do these permits and licenses come from? The short answer takes us back to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code. If you want to flip through “the Code,” you will find at the highest level it is organized into six titles.
NAVIGATING THE TEXAS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CODE
Title 3 governs permits (Subtitle A) and licenses (Subtitle B). Within the subtitles, you will find chapters. Chapters 11 and 61 kick off Subtitle A and Subtitle B, respectively. These two chapters are close mirrors to each other: Chapter 11 providing general provisions applicable to all permits and Chapter 61 doing the same for licenses.
Proceeding each of these chapters are permit- or license-specific chapters. In other words, if you would like to know more information about a mixed beverage permit, you would at least need to review Chapter 28 Mixed Beverage Permits in conjunction with Chapter 11. If you would like to read up on the retail dealer’s on-premise license, you would need to start with code Chapter 69 Retail Dealer’s On-Premise License and Chapter 61. The TABC offers a comprehensive list of all “liquor permits” and “beer licenses” on its website including a description of each.
PERMIT OR LICENSE: WHICH DO YOU NEED?
If you go looking for a Texas liquor license and end up thinking you need a mixed beverage permit, don’t worry. You may very well be on the right track. Permit or license, what you need is the proper authority to transact business in Texas in the alcoholic beverage industry.
Download our Permit Summary for a quick reference guide of the most common Texas liquor licenses or permits available to retail establishments.
Disclaimer: Nothing in our articles or on our website is legal advice and should not be taken as such. Please address all legal questions to your counsel. While our team is not a law firm, we can refer you as needed.
