Are Bars That Serve Hard Liquor Still Required to Serve Hot Food?

Bars need to offer at least five different “meals,” but there’s no rule that says anyone has to eat them.

Now serving brunch. (Henry Cromett)
By Marty Smith

I have always heard that in Oregon, places that serve hard liquor are required to serve hot food, and the food is supposed to be some minimum percentage of total sales. Some places, however, offer only a few microwaved snacks that nobody buys. Is this yet another rule effectively killed by COVID? —Hungry Barfly

COVID certainly did turn our world upside down, Barfly. You could drive with expired tags without getting pulled over, stop paying rent without getting evicted, and carry a martini home in a cup to go without being hassled by the man. In this ethical Narnia, I can’t blame you for wondering whether some unscrupulous bar owners might have offered patrons a few licks off a peanut butter-covered stripper pole and called it a hot dinner.

If they did, though, you can’t blame it on the pandemic. It’s true there used to be a food-sales percentage requirement for hard liquor bars (25% to 65%, depending on the license), but that rule went by the wayside years ago, when West Nile virus and carpal tunnel syndrome were still hip; COVID wasn’t even a gleam in SARS’s eye.

The current rules are considerably laxer. Bars need to offer at least five different “meals,” but there’s no rule that says anyone has to eat them. A meal must be prepared on premises (probably to keep the operator from just stashing a bag of Big Macs behind the bar), and must be an item “that the Commission determines is a main course...sufficient to satisfy the appetite of one individual.”

If you’re having trouble imagining the OLCC meeting where they determine what a main course is, you’re not alone. Apparently it happened, though. They’re certainly quite clear about what a main course isn’t: “Food items that are appetizers, snacks, and desserts do not qualify as a meal. Examples include, but are not limited to, popcorn, peanuts [and] chips.” Gummy bears are right out. Tums? Forget it. And don’t even think about Pop Rocks.

Why isn’t there an extensive menu at every dive on Northeast Sandy, then? Well, the five meals have to be different—but not that different. As the OLCC puts it, “a turkey sandwich differs from a salami sandwich.” A cheese party pizza counts as different from a pepperoni party pizza. Regular White Castles are different, legally, from cheese ones. That’s four items already—throw in one peanut butter stripper pole and you’re in business.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

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