(a) A cafe permit shall allow the retail sale of alcoholic liquor to be consumed on the premises of a cafe. The holder of a cafe permit shall keep food available for sale to its customers for consumption on the premises during the majority of the hours such premises are open. The availability of food from outside vendors located on or near the premises, who may directly deliver such food or indirectly deliver such food through a third party, shall be deemed to constitute compliance with such requirement. The licensed premises shall at all times comply with all the regulations of the local department of health. Nothing herein shall be construed to require that any food be sold or purchased with any alcoholic liquor, nor shall any rule, regulation or standard be promulgated or enforced to require that sales of food be substantial or that the business’s receipts from sales of alcoholic liquor equal any set percentage of total receipts from all sales made on the licensed premises. A cafe permit shall allow, with the prior approval of the Department of Consumer Protection, alcoholic liquor to be served at tables in outside areas that are screened or not screened from public view where permitted by fire, zoning and health regulations. If not required by fire, zoning or health regulations, a fence or wall enclosing such outside areas shall not be required by the Department of Consumer Protection. No fence or wall used to enclose such outside areas shall be less than thirty inches high. Such permit shall also authorize the sale at retail from the premises of sealed containers, supplied by the permittee, of draught beer for consumption off the premises. Such sales shall be conducted only during the hours a package store is permitted to sell alcoholic liquor under the provisions of subsection (d) of section 30-91. Not more than four liters of such beer shall be sold to any person on any day on which the sale of alcoholic liquor is authorized under the provisions of subsection (d) of section 30-91. The annual fee for a cafe permit shall be two thousand dollars, except the annual fee for a cafe permit for a prior holder of a tavern permit issued under section 30-26 shall be eight hundred dollars for the first year, twelve hundred dollars for the second year, one thousand six hundred dollars for the third year and two thousand dollars for each year thereafter.

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 30-22a

  • another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.

(b) (1) A cafe patron may remove one unsealed bottle of wine for off-premises consumption, provided the patron has purchased a full course meal and consumed a portion of the wine with such meal on the cafe premises. For purposes of this section, “full course meal” means a diversified selection of food which (A) ordinarily cannot be consumed without the use of tableware, and (B) cannot be conveniently consumed while standing or walking.

(2) A partially consumed bottle of wine that is to be removed from the premises under this subsection shall be securely sealed and placed in a bag by the permittee or the permittee’s agent or employee prior to removal from the premises.

(c) As used in this section, “cafe” means space in a suitable and permanent building, vessel or structure, kept, used, maintained, advertised and held out to the public to be a place where alcoholic liquor and food is served for sale at retail for consumption on the premises but which does not necessarily serve hot meals; it shall have no sleeping accommodations for the public and need not necessarily have a kitchen or dining room but shall have employed therein at all times an adequate number of employees.

(d) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes any location in a passenger terminal complex of any airport, as defined in section 15-34, or any location adjacent to and attached by common partition to such complex, which is open to the public or to airline club members or their guests, with or without the sale of food, for consumption on the premises.

(e) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes all of the land and buildings in which the principal business conducted is racing or jai alai exhibitions, with pari-mutuel betting licensed by the Department of Consumer Protection.

(f) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes any commercial bowling establishment containing ten or more lanes, or any commercial racquetball or tennis facility containing five or more courts, with or without food, for consumption on the premises.

(g) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes the premises and grounds of a golf country club, defined as: (1) An association of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, that has been in existence as a bona fide organization for at least one year prior to applying for a permit issued as provided by this chapter, or that at the time of applying for the permit is in existence as a bona fide organization and has not less than twenty members who have paid annual membership fees or dues and have signed affidavits of their intention to remain members of the association for not less than one year after that time, not including associations organized for any commercial or business purpose the object of which is money profit, which maintains a golf course of not less than eighteen holes and a course length of at least fifty-five hundred yards and a club house with facilities that include locker rooms, a dining room and a lounge; provided the club shall file with the department, upon request, within ten days of February first in each year, a list of the names and residences of its members, and shall similarly file, within ten days of the election of any additional member, his name and address, and provided its aggregate annual membership fees or dues and other income, exclusive of any proceeds of the sale of alcoholic liquor, shall be sufficient to defray the annual rental of its leased or rented premises, or, if the premises are owned by the club, shall be sufficient to meet the taxes, insurance and repairs and the interest on any mortgage thereof; and provided, further, its affairs and management shall be conducted by a board of directors, executive committee or similar body chosen by the members at their annual meeting, and no member or any officer, agent or employee of the club shall be paid or, directly or indirectly, shall receive in the form of salary or other compensation any profits from the disposition or sale of alcoholic liquor to the club or to the members of the club or its guests introduced by members, beyond the amount of such salary as may be fixed and voted at annual meetings by the members or by its directors or other governing body and as reported by the club to the department, within three months after the annual meeting, and as is, in the judgment of the department, reasonable and proper compensation for the services of such member, officer, agent or employee; or (2) an association of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, which has been in existence as a bona fide organization for at least one year prior to applying for a permit issued as provided by this chapter, or which at the time of applying for the permit is in existence as a bona fide organization and has not less than twenty members who have paid annual membership fees or dues and is directly or indirectly wholly owned by a corporation which is and continues to be nonprofit and to which the Internal Revenue Service has issued a ruling classifying it as an exempt organization under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United States, as amended from time to time, which maintains a golf course of not less than eighteen holes and a course length of at least fifty-five hundred yards and a club house with facilities which include locker rooms, a dining room and a lounge; provided the club shall file with the department, upon request, within ten days of February first in each year, a list of the names and residences of its members, and shall similarly file, within ten days of the admission of any additional member, his name and address. The nonprofit corporation shall demonstrate to the commission an ability to pay any operating deficit of the golf country club, exclusive of any proceeds of the sale of alcoholic liquor; and provided, further, the affairs and the management of the nonprofit corporation are conducted by a board of directors, executive committee or similar body at least forty per cent of the members of which are chosen by the members of the nonprofit corporation at their annual meeting and the balance of the members of the board of directors are professionals chosen for their knowledge of the business of the nonprofit corporation, and all moneys earned by the golf country club shall be used to defray its expenses of operation or for charitable purposes, and any balance shall be directly or indirectly remitted to the nonprofit corporation.

(h) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes any corporation that operates a railway in this state or that operates club, parlor, dining, buffet or lounge cars upon the lines of any such railway in this state. It shall allow the sale and public consumption of alcoholic liquor in any club, parlor, dining, buffet or lounge car of a passenger train operated in this state. It shall be subject to all the privileges, obligations and penalties provided for in this chapter except that it shall be issued to a corporation instead of to a person and, if it is revoked, another application may be made by the corporation for the issuance of another railroad permit at any time after the expiration of one year after such revocation.

(i) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes a facility designed, constructed and used for corporate and private parties, sporting events, concerts, exhibitions, trade shows, entertainment presentations, conventions, banquets, meetings, dances, fund-raising events and similar functions, located on a tract of land of not less than twenty acres containing an enclosed roofed pavilion constructed to seat not less than two hundred fifty people, where hot meals are regularly served in an adequate and sanitary dining area, such meals having been prepared in an adequate and sanitary kitchen on the premises, and employing an adequate number of employees who shall serve only persons who are at such outing facility to attend an event, function, private party or banquet.

(j) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes: (1) A room or building that is subject to the care, custody and control of The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees; (2) land and buildings which are subject to the care, custody and control of an institution offering a program of higher learning, as defined in section 10a-34, which has been accredited by the Board of Regents for Higher Education or is authorized by the Office of Higher Education to award a degree pursuant to section 10a-34; or (3) on land or in a building situated on or abutting a golf course which is subject to the care, custody and control of an institution offering a program of higher learning, as defined in section 10a-34, which has been accredited by the Board of Regents for Higher Education or is authorized by the Office of Higher Education to award a degree pursuant to section 10a-34.

(k) For purposes of compliance with this section, “cafe” includes a tobacco bar that: (1) During the calendar year ending December 31, 2002, generated at least ten per cent of the tobacco bar’s total annual gross income from on-site sales of tobacco products and rentals of on-site humidors; or (2) commenced operations during the period beginning January 1, 2003, and ending December 31, 2022, and (A) generates at least sixty per cent of the tobacco bar’s total annual gross sales from on-site sales of tobacco products, as defined in subparagraph (E) of subdivision (2) of subsection (b) of section 19a-342 and subparagraph (F) of subdivision (2) of subsection (b) of section 19a-342a, as determined in an annual audit conducted by an independent certified public accountant, (B) is located in a municipality that has a population of at least eighty thousand and does not contain another tobacco bar, (C) does not allow cigarettes or cigarette tobacco on the premises, (D) contains a walk-in or stand-up humidor as a built-in feature on the premises, (E) is located in a building (i) in which no other owner-occupant, lessee or tenant has a right to utilize the same space as the tobacco bar, or (ii) that uses the tobacco bar’s own heating, ventilation or air conditioning system to prevent commingling of air, (F) is located in premises equipped with a ventilation system that (i) provides local mechanical exhaust with no recirculation, (ii) circulates at least sixty cubic feet of outdoor air per person per minute to provide adequate indoor air quality, and (iii) satisfies the requirements established in ANSI/ASHRAE 62-2001, “ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality”, as amended from time to time, and (G) provides health coverage to the tobacco bar’s employees and their dependents in accordance with other applicable law, including, but not limited to, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, P.L. 111-152, as both may be amended from time to time, and regulations adopted thereunder.