Texas House approves permanent "alcohol to go" bill, moves to Senate

Texas House initially approves bill to make

The House chamber gave initial approval to HB 1024 Wednesday, which would permanently allow alcohol to be included in to-go orders.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas House has approved a bill that would allow restaurants to sell alcohol to go beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Texas House passed HB 1024 by a vote of 144-1 on Thursday, March 25. The bill is now heading to the Texas Senate for consideration.

This would be a win for restaurant owners, says Anna Tauzin with the Texas Restaurant Association. "Restaurants in Austin, and across the state are very happy to know they're going to have an additional stream of revenue coming in the door and going out the door," she said.

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Texas Restaurant Association looking to expand alcohol-to-go in Texas

The alcohol to go waiver was recently extended by the governor indefinitely, but TRA wants to take that waiver a step even further by allowing the sale of mixed drinks with food orders.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) and co-authored by Democrats essentially extends the current law, which was technically an executive order put in place during the pandemic to help restaurants keep their doors open.

"We were luckily able to get an executive order signed by Gov. Abbott [which] allowed alcoholic beverages mixed on-site, to go, which was pretty revolutionary for Texas," Tauzin said.

It's revolutionary because Texas has long been restrictive with alcohol. Since the repeal of prohibition, Texas has banned the sale of liquor on Sundays. However, grocery stores and gas stations can sell beer and wine after noon.

"I think that being able to create a permanent stream of income is important for every restaurant because it's something they can depend on, they can project sales based on it," Tauzin said.

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Enjoy responsibly: Gov. Abbott signs alcohol delivery bill

Have you ever ordered food or groceries from a retailer to be delivered to your home? And also wish that you could order beer or wine to be delivered? Well I'm about to sign a law that allows you to do just that, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a video to his more than 256,000 followers on Twitter Monday evening.

Some Texans have expressed concerns that permanently legalizing alcohol to go sales would lead to open container violations, but Tauzin says that having the executive order in place was a chance to prove otherwise.

"It was an opportunity for us to showcase that restaurants are responsible enough for us to do this and consumers are responsible enough to purchase alcohol to go," she said.