New YouTube Video: Can my Food Truck sell alcohol?

ABC Consulting, Crystal Stump, SCC, EIN, ABC License

Crystal Stump (founder and CEO of ABC Consulting and former special ABC Agent from the Alcohol Beverage Control Authority) explains how you, the Food Truck owner, can get your ABC alcohol license (Spoiler Alert: it is parking your truck)

Pour yourself a drink; you’re going to need it!

We do get a lot of questions about how to obtain an ABC alcohol license for food trucks, beer trucks, or once we got questions about a margarita truck (I would LOVE to hear a margarita truck pulling into my neighborhood – personally!), but unfortunately, a mobile alcohol license isn’t allowed in Virginia. Well, actually, it is available, but only for a caterer – and that is an entirely different subject.

But today, in this video, I will explain how I have worked with and HELPED Food Trucks get a license to sell alcohol. In fact, I have worked with several Food Trucks, across the state of Virginia – and we have figured out how we can help them get an alcohol license. There are some limitations and that is what this video is about.

First, if you have a food truck and are driving it around, you aren’t going to be able to license it to sell alcohol. Period.

But, if you have found a permanent location for your food truck, lease the space from a landlord, cover your tires and put a barrier around the truck [making it not movable], put a barrier around the tables and chairs (plants, rope, etc.), then you do meet the VA ABC Authority licensing qualifications of a permanent location!

Breaking that down, again: if you have an unmoved truck with a lease, tables and chair and a designated consumption seating area, you do meet the qualifications of a normal restaurant for an ABC alcohol license.

You, also, will have to follow consumption laws:

  • $2,000 of food sold, per month, to sell Beer & Wine.
  • $4,000 of food sold, per month, for a mixed-beverage license.
  • Half of these sales have to be from entrée sales.

If you are wondering how the VA ABC Authority defines an entrée, it means a substantial meal (and if you add a “side” to that entrée looks like a more substantial meal for licensing purposes). So, in other words, an entrée could mean a hot dog with chips or a sandwich served with coleslaw. Pizza is considered an entrée. If you are selling entrées, make sure that they have those sides to be able to obtain the license quicker and more easily. Sides help that approval process happen faster.

If your Food Truck is seasonal, you can suspend your alcohol license for the period of time you aren’t operating.

You should immediately take our TOAST Academy Seller/Server Alcohol Training. It is available, online, for only $29.95. Take the training annually; it only costs $29.95, is self-paced and is available online.

Food trucks are very popular and if you want your food truck to be able to serve beer, wine or mixed beverages, it is possible. If you have more questions, let’s talk: 800-785-0161

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