Liquor Store

Unlike most other states, Maryland shoppers have to make one extra stop for a cabernet to go with that steak they bought on sale at the supermarket —grocery stores in the state generally are banned from selling alcohol. Increasingly, though, grocery chains like Wegmans and Harris Teeter are trying to find ways around the prohibition, drawing pushback from Maryland's powerful liquor lobby and package goods stores but support from consumers hoping for easier food-and-wine pairings.

Update:  In an email Friday, drama teacher Maura Morrison said Thursday night's show was standing room only with people turned away from the 900-seat auditorium. “Wegmans' executives were there and were wildly supportive of our show,” Morrison wrote. She added that the local Wegmans provided shirts, hats, signs and a paper towel display for the zero-budget class project. “They never asked to see the script. They had a real sense of humor about it all.” Wegmanshas built a loyal following with mega supermarkets known for gourmet cheeses, French patisseries, European-style cafes and attentive service.

A group of Clarksville residents trying to block a liquor store from opening in the small shopping center near their upscale neighborhood is finding out just how difficult a task that can be. The residents' large detached homes are just off the east side of Route 108 across the road from the parish center building at St. Louis Roman Catholic Church. The main entry road for the decade-old, 70-home development called Clarks Glen North is Wake Forest Road, and the homes lining it look northward, directly facing the shopping center across a narrow strip of grass and mature pine trees.

If local pharmacists could write the regulations, Marylanders probably wouldn't ever have been allowed to get their prescriptions filled at chain stores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Independent video stores probably would have liked to outlaw Blockbuster, just as small bookstore owners probably would have been just as happy if the state had a ban on Barnes & Noble. (For that matter, Blockbuster might like an injunction against Netflix and Barnes & Noble on Amazon.com.) And most of all, Main Street merchants everywhere would probably love a world where Walmart was illegal.

The owner of an Ellicott City liquor store whose license was opposed by area residents has been fined $250 for allowing a 20-year-old underage police volunteer to buy alcohol March 12. Police sent the youth into the St. John's Liquors at 9150 Baltimore National Pike, where he bought a four-pack of malt liquor after showing the clerk his driver's license showing him to be 20. The legal drinking age in Maryland is 21. Owner Matthew Park testified...

The Howard County Liquor Board has given two men the green light to open a 1,600-square-foot liquor store in Elkridge.The board, which consists of the five-member County Council, voted 3-0 Wednesday night to approve a liquor license for James N. Angelo and Edward R. Krug Jr., who head Troy Farms Property LLC.Mary C. Lorsung, who chairs the board, abstained from voting. C. Vernon Gray was absent.Krug, vice president of the company, said the 1,664-square-foot store in the 6100 block of Meadowridge Road could open as early as mid-August.

A group headed by Council Chairman David G. Boschert plans to take over a Heritage Harbour liquor store.If the liquor license transfer is approved -- the county liquor board is set to take up the request tonight -- Mr. Boschert will take ownership of South Haven Wine & Spirits, located in the Heritage Harbour Center, and rename it the Heritage Wine & Spirits Shoppe. The Crownsville Democrat heads a group called Heritage International Beverages Ltd., which includes his mother, Miriam R. Boschert, and his brother-in-law, Charles P. Raines Jr.Mr.

A West Baltimore liquor store where a man was killed over the weekend reopened yesterday despite the objections of neighbors who say the store is a haven for drug activity. Chang K. Yim, the owner of Linden Bar and Liquors, voluntarily closed Sunday, after a man waiting in line to buy alcohol was shot in the head inside the store Saturday night. But Yim reopened his store on West North Avenue about noon yesterday and his lawyer, Richard Bittner, said Yim cannot be blamed for the "unfortunate act of violence."

A half-hour before police were scheduled to close his North Avenue liquor store, Chang K. Yim reluctantly slid down a metal security curtain yesterday and padlocked it himself. "This is the only way I make a living," he shrugged. "For the time being, I'm jobless." Yim's Linden Bar and Liquors became the first business shuttered under the city's public nuisance law, which has been on the books for 15 years but was revised this year, in part because loopholes had made it difficult to enforce.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge allowed Linden Bar and Liquors yesterday to remain open until a June 5 appeals hearing, a decision that reverses a ruling by the city liquor board last month. Judge Alfred Nance granted a stay on the final day the bar would have been allowed to sell alcohol. The liquor board revoked the license for the owner of the longtime corner establishment in the 900 block of W. North Ave. on April 17, noting an excessive amount of police activity outside the store.

Unlike most other states, Maryland shoppers have to make one extra stop for a cabernet to go with that steak they bought on sale at the supermarket —grocery stores in the state are generally banned from selling alcohol. Increasingly, though, grocery chains like Wegmans and Harris Teeter are trying to find ways around the prohibition, drawing pushback from Maryland's powerful liquor lobby and package goods stores but support from consumers hoping for easier food-and-wine pairings.

Baltimore City Councilman Nick J. Mosby (D-District 7) plans to introduce legislation Monday that would ban liquor store owners from selling non-alcoholic goods to people under 21. Mosby said the purpose of the legislation is to prevent teens in Baltimore from developing a habit of entering liquor stores to buy items. He said entering liquor stores is already "normalized" behavior for city youth, and banning the practice could create a demand for other stores to open in city neighborhoods.

Authorities were trying to determine Monday whether postings on social media led a surge of teens from opposite sides of the city to converge Saturday night on the Inner Harbor, leading to at least one stabbing, one fight and 10 arrests. Officers from three districts were called to close streets, clear the waterfront promenade and disperse the crowd. One officer used a Taser to subdue an unruly 16-year-old, according to police. Messages from witnesses on Twitter described melees stretching from The Block to the light rail on Howard Street, with reports of teens beating on a rail car window to get at people inside.

Several Howard County restaurant owners are lobbying for the right to sell refillable containers of beer and wine to dine-in customers, but the plan has raised concerns from the owners of a liquor store that the sales would result in irresponsible drinking. Corinne Gorzo, who co-owns Glenwood Wine and Spirits with her husband, John, spoke out against refillable containers to state lawmakers, voicing concern about potential sanitation and safety issues resulting from customers drinking to excess.

Baltimore County police are asking the public's help in identifying a man who robbed a Catonsville liquor store Feb. 1. Police said the man entered The Store, which sells wine, beer and liquor in the Paradise section of Catonsville at 6500 Frederick Road, in the early evening. An employee told county police, who responded at about 7:20 p.m., that a man had pointed a handgun at him and demanded money from the register. The man then reached into the register and took cash from the drawer.

Canton is getting a new "upscale tavern" in about two weeks. Called Lighthouse Tavern, it replaces the old Sports Cafe, which closed earlier this month. Co-owner Patrick McCarthy promises "an alternative to the Canton Square scene. " McCarthy knows that area. He worked as a bartender at Looney's for nearly 15 years and at Coburn's for about three before that bar closed in 2009.  He and his business partner, Christopher Petrie, bought Sports Cafe nearly two weeks ago to re-open as "a place where you don't have to have someone screaming next to you," as is the norm at the Square, he says.

Four men wearing ski masks robbed the Starting Gate Liquor Store on Route 198 in Laurel Monday evening, county police said yesterday.Investigators said the men walked into the store at 7:44 p.m. Three of them waved handguns and ordered the clerks to the floor. They grabbed an undisclosed amount of money from the cash register and fled toward Whiskey Bottom Road.

When is a neighborhood liquor store too convenient?When it's too close to the neighborhood, say some Elkridge residents who must live with a Howard County Liquor Board decision last week to allow the opening of a liquor store off Meadowridge Road near Interstate 95.The board voted 4-1 to give a license to Meadowridge Wine & Spirits over the objections of about two dozen neighborhood residents who showed up to oppose the liquor license at a Sept. 12 hearing."Legally, we didn't have anything on our side," conceded Norman Zundel, one of the opponents, who lives nearby off Mayfield Avenue.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. Cockeysville Pickburn Court, unit block, between 6:45 a.m. and 9 p.m. Jan. 24. Laptop computer stolen. Front door destroyed. York Road, 10800 block, between 5 p.m. Jan. 14 and 1:16 p.m. Jan. 15. Cash, jewelry and postage stamps stolen from Robyn's Nest Clothing Consignment Shop.