California will extend to-go cocktails beyond June 15

When California fully reopens on June 15, one of the state’s most useful pandemic allowances for restaurants and bars will be sticking around—at least for the foreseeable future.

This afternoon Governor Gavin Newsom announced that businesses selling food as well as alcohol will be allowed to continue to sell to-go cocktails thanks to an extension of the temporary provision.

Previously illegal, restaurants and bars across Los Angeles have bolstered their takeout sales through the ability of customers to add pre-made cocktails to food orders during the last 15 months. The provision also spurred countless specials, business expansions and some innovation within the industry, such as new cocktail canning operations across the county, delivery cocktails, frozen drinks to-go and themed cocktail kits.

The move to extend the program would allow to-go cocktails with the sale of food to be offered through the calendar year until statewide bills—such as SB-389, which passed in the State Senate in May and has yet to be voted on in the Assembly—could theoretically pass and be signed into law, allowing to-go cocktails on a permanent basis.

“We’ve got a number of pieces of legislation that is [sic] going through the California legislature,” Gov. Newsom said in a press conference on Thursday. “Some of that won’t happen soon enough, so we want to make sure there are no gaps, and that’s why we’re going to extend these orders that we put into place going back to March of last year.”

Newsom also shared he plans to extend outdoor permitting programs that allow restaurants and bars to utilize parklets, sidewalks and other alfresco areas previously unused for dining purposes.