[00:00:00] Speaker A: Beverage represents an incredible opportunity to increase the profitability of our restaurants. Though I'm sure, as you're well aware, procuring a liquor license can sometimes be tricky, especially since all 50 states in this country run things a little bit differently. Sometimes then you got to go to the well. You've got to get an expert opinion, whether you're trying to get a full liquor license or just trying to get a beer and wine license. Sometimes you need somebody in your corner, somebody who's got all the answers. Somebody who has done this hundreds of times over. My guest on today's show is a guy named Jason Koh. He's going to explain exactly how to do it, how not to do it, all of that and more on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking foreign.
Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy Podcast, dedicated to helping you build a more profitable and sustainable business. Each week I leverage my 25 years in the industry to help you build that more sustainable and profitable business. I give talks all over the country. I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset.
I put out content here on the podcast twice every single week. I have a YouTube channel. You'll find me on Instagram, on Facebook, on TikTok. You also know that I run a coaching program. It's called the P3 mastermind. It's a group coaching program where I help restaurant owners and operators increase the profitability of their restaurants. I don't wanna bore you with any of that. I have one request of you today. If you get any sort of value from this show, please take two minutes, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Easiest way to do that is go find Apple Podcasts. Leave us literally just let people know what you get out of the show, why you keep tuning in, and why you think they should tune in. That more than anything else would help us grow this show.
Now, Torque understands that expectations for food service, sustainability and guest experience are higher than they've ever been. That's why Torque provides products and services that help restaurants actually meet those demands. With more than 50 years of global food service expertise, Torque can help you keep up with hygiene standards and food safety guidelines in every area of of your business. Foh boh restrooms and Drive thru. From Express Nap, the world's favorite napkin dispenser to multipurpose cleaning towels that clean smarter and high capacity restroom dispensers that reduce runouts. Torque offers better hygiene for better guest and staff experiences. You can check them out and get more
[email protected] restaurant please use that link torqueusa.com restaurant to learn about all of the products they have. As always, that link is going to be in the show notes.
So my guest on today's show is guy named Jason Co. Jason is the president and CEO of a company called AAA Liquor License Consulting. If it sounds like he helps you get your liquor license, that's exactly what he does.
In all of the great states across this country. It is very complicated because the laws are different in every state and sometimes you just want somebody in your corner who can help you navigate all the ins and outs. We're going to start to have that conversation. So I know this is top of mind for a lot of you guys because we know how profitable this beverage can be. We're going to get into the nitty gritty of what you need to know to begin that process. Jason, I'm glad to have you here. Welcome.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: So tell me the origin story of this company. What made you do it, how long you've been doing it? Like obviously I know that there's a need for it but, but what made you, you know, what was your impetus to, to get this thing going?
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Yeah, so I started this, I started doing liquor licenses when I was 14 years old, if you could believe it or not. It was my first, first summer job as an intern and I just was always had the gift of gab I guess is the best way to put it. So I was always competitive in doing the door, door sales for the cookie dough contests when you're in middle school or you know, selling cookies for boy scouts, whatever it may be. And ultimately I had a friend's dad who ran a liquor license company and he asked me to come in and just say hey look, I want to put you on the phones and give you a job and you want to make some spare money, come on in. And so I decided to just show up on a Monday, you know, bright eyed and bushy tailed walked in. He gave me a list of like 100 people to call and put me on the phones. And out of those hundred, I think I got about half that list to decide to sell their liquor license. Of course at 14 I had no idea what the value was of those Licenses. It was just like, do you want to sell? Yes. Okay, cool. Let me Patrick through to the owner type of thing. And so that at the end of that day, my boss at the time had slipped me $100 bill. And as a 14 year old, you're kind of like, whoa, that's crazy. I just made money today. And. And that is kind of how it all started. I just, you know, got addicted to dialing for dollars during that time and worked there every summer up until I graduated college. Once I graduated college, went full time there, and at about 28 years old. So about 10 years ago, you know, I just decided I was outgrowing that particular firm and wanted to start my own. And really what it came down to wanting to start my own is, is I wanted to have ownership of my own business for one and two, I wanted. I saw it differently on how that particular company handled their business with clientele versus how I wanted to do it. And I'm first generation US. My parents came from Korea. You know, they owned a small little mom and pop flower shop. And seeing how hard they worked and kind of them having to do it on their own. When I started doing liquor licenses, I noticed how many immigrant families or immigrant couples were running businesses with the restaurant, you know, or grocery store, gas station, things like that, and being able to help them acquire their alcohol license, which was a huge revenue for their business.
Something in me was just like, I love doing this. I love helping these people. And so I don't really look at myself as a consultant. At the end of the day, I look at myself as your business partner. Because the ride, as, you know, with a liquor license is not just like one or two days. It could be, you know, two or three years. Potentially it could be two or three months, just depending on the state and the city.
But really, I took pride in being able to help these immigrant families and mom and pops start their business and kind of create this American dream for themselves. And that's where I take my greatest pride in doing what I do. And so that's kind of how this all started and why I wanted to go out on my own.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: I love it. It's funny. So I'm a restaurant coach. I work with hundreds of restaurant owners all over the country. And I would say a meaningful percentage of the clients that I work with are now that, like that those legacy restaurants being passed down. It is that immigrant story. And there's like, people from all over the world and they're now taking over from like, they're the parents did it the only way they knew how. And they're saying, okay, there's a better way, there's a smarter way. We now, we know the country, know the language, know the culture, like, we can, you know, we can level up and you know, sort of where you come in.
Talk to me about. So liquor licenses are crucial for so many restaurants out there because of the markup on beverage. We know that. Like, not to put too fine a point on it, you're talking to the guy who's all about profitability. This is one way to increase profitability, but it is a process because based on what city you're in, what state you're in and all of that. Talk to me about how the process begins then. Like, how do you start that conversation? So you find somebody says, hey, I think I want to do this. Like, where do they go from there? Like, how does that conversation begin?
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Cool. So when I get someone who's at. Before even step one, they're literally just like, well, I'm kicking this idea of opening up a restaurant. Where do I start? It's never even with the liquor license at that point.
Your starting point is location. Where do you see yourself operating? The foot traffic of people coming in?
Do you like the square footage of the location? Do you find yourself that it's operable to what you genuinely want to do with that restaurant, bar, grocery store, whatever it is that may have a liquor license associated to it? So once they get through that process of finding their location and making sure that it's zoned property properly, then we go for the liquor license side of things. But, you know, I always tell people, like, don't, you know, desperate people do desperate things is a famous saying. And so I've run into quite a few clientele that will just go sign a lease on a location because they just want to open. And it's not about just opening. It's where do you want to open? That's the bigger question for me that I ask someone who's. Who's just starting out.
Some people are very faith, you know, have high faith in what it is that they're doing, that, hey, no matter where I go, I'm going to be able to sell my product. Great, okay, cool. Then go sign your lease and then we go working on the liquor license side of things.
I always will forewarn people to not sign a lease until they've known or figured out whether the zoning is approved to have an alcohol license. You know, especially for the restaurant tours, you know, alcohol is a big convenience to the clientele that walk in. I, I have a myriad of clients that started with no alcohol and they found clientele walking in, oh, you guys don't sell beer? Okay, I'm out of here. They go next door and they go to the guy that does have a beer and wine or a full liquor license. So, you know, the alcohol license is very much imperative to particular businesses, retail and restaurants, on site and off site. But ultimately it's location. Right? Because if you don't get people walking in, then what good is the alcohol that you have in on the shelves?
[00:09:39] Speaker A: So I love this, but it begs a question or it brings a question to mind that I didn't even think to ask. And I'm guessing then many listeners, but when is the right time to bring you on? Because this is not necessarily top of mind. They say, hey, I got this concept in mind. I got to look for the right space in the right neighborhood.
But you're seeming to say that bringing somebody like you on earlier in the process is actually in your best interest. So you can sort of like check all those boxes, cross all the T's, dot all the I's. Am I hearing you right?
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yes, Correct. And so the. Really, you can bring me on at any point that you'd like. If you're, if this is your first rodeo and you're, and you've never opened up a restaurant before and things like that, you bring me on early because just like you alluded to and just like you said, I'm going to dot the I's and cross the T's for you. So if we have five locations, I'm going to go to each municipality or each zoning department in the example that they're in separate areas, and go find out locations 1 through 5, which ones can and can't have licenses, which ones are going to require additional permitting, which ones are going to have heavy conditions on them and things like that. So that way you, the potential business operator, can say, well, I don't like locations one through three because they're going to make me close at 9pm I want to be open till 2am okay. Locations four and five allow for that. Location five is much better foot traffic than location four. Location four, though, I don't have to go through an additional permit. So I'm going to coach you through all of that process before you spend the money on signing a lease and putting your security deposit down and all that kind of good stuff. Right. So that's option one. Then you have guys who open up several restaurants and they're like, all right, I already know to check the zoning. I know how to do all of that stuff. This isn't my first rodeo, but I don't know how to get this damn license in this particular area. I don't, you know, I don't know anyone who owns one in the area, and I need someone to go find me one. Then you bring me in during that time as well. So. But for the novice, it's always nice to have again. And that's why I say I'm not just your consultant, I'm your partner. Because I'm here to help you get to the point that you ultimately want to get it as a business owner.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Because the flip side of this story, right, is where somebody says, I got my space, I got my thing, I'm doing this, my, my, you know, build outs underway. And then they say, oh, you got to talk to this guy Jason. They come to you and you go down the road. I assume it happens handful of times where you're like, there's nothing I could do for you. This is, I mean, I think about like Philadelphia. I grew up, I went to school in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's got like that church law, right? Like, you can't be a certain amount of feet from a church door, so you got to like literally mark it out with a measuring tape and like, if you can touch the door. So it's one of these things where you're just like, yeah, nothing I could do for you. Like this 200 years old.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's, you know, that's the harsh part of, of the industry is, is I have run into that where someone signed a lease and they're like, you know, I've spent half a million dollars on my kitchen build out and doing this and doing that. And we go verify with the city and the city says it in black and white writing like, sorry, this location doesn't qualify for an alcohol license in Philly. Type R in that case, you know, because you're 400ft away from a church. Well, you know, you can try and go back to your landlord and say, oh, I made a mistake, I can't have a license here. Can I get out of this thing? Well, if you don't have that alcohol license contingency in your lease, you're on the hook, you know, or, you know, for example, in California, in Los Angeles, let's use that. You know, I've had a myriad of clients where they, you know, go sign a lease on a location and there's no use permit there. For alcohol. And they're like, okay, well we were planning on opening in two months. Well, you're not opening for another year. And in the interim of that year, while you're waiting for that permit, you're paying rent, right, and not selling alcohol. So I've seen it happen more times than not, to be honest with you, which is why I, you know, you're right in saying that you want to hire a guy like me on the early on. So that way again, you know what you're signing up for because you'd rather pay me a nominal amount compared to what you'd be signing on a lease for and all that kind of stuff to find out what you can and can't do at each of these locations. And then once you find the location that we know is workable, well, the money you paid me is well spent. You see what I'm saying? Rather than spending good after bad. So it happens a lot.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Thousands of restaurants across the country use Kickfin to send instant cashless tip payouts directly to their employees bank accounts the second their shift ends. It's a really simple solution to what's become a really big problem because let's face it, paying out cash tips to your workers day after day, shift after shift, it's kind of a nightmare. Tedious tip distribution takes your managers away from work that actually matters. It's sometimes hard to track payments, which leads to accounting and compliance headaches. Plus, cash tip outs create the perfect opportunity for theft. And there's never been, there's never enough cash on hand to pay out those tips. So what, what happens? Your managers are constantly having to make bank runs. Bottom line, there's never been a secure, efficient way to tip out. Until now. Meet Kickfin. Kickfin is an easy to use software that sends real time cashless tip payouts straight to your Employees bank accounts247,365. Tipping out with Kikfin gives managers and operators hours back in their day. It makes reporting a breeze and protects your business from mistakes and theft. And guess what? Employees love it. So it becomes a really powerful recruiting tool. Best of all, restaurants can have Kickfin up and running overnight. Employees can enroll in seconds. No hardware, no contracts, and no setup fees. Get in touch today for a personalized demo and see how restaurants and bars across the country are tipping out with Kickfin. Visit kickfin.comdemo and yes, that link is in the show notes.
All right, so then talk to me. So earlier is better. Just, you know, the worst thing that you're going to say Is like, yeah, it's a little bit too early. Call me in three months. Or let's follow up in this conversation that that's always easier to punt it. It's, it's harder to go back in time.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: As I understand the way the time works. So talk to me about how, like you talked about how this thing gets started. But like, like, what's a typical process? Like, so you said, okay, you go look at places and then you run down the information is figure out like, okay, I live in New York, you live in la. These are areas with different neighborhoods, different, you know, different rules.
LA is famous for it, you know, totally, you know, West Hollywood's totally different than North Hollywood, totally different than Silver Lake, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: And New York City.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Talk to me about New York, similar.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: With the different boroughs and all that kind of stuff. And so, so walk me through step.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: 1, 2, 3, 4, however many to give me a sense, give listeners a sense of like, what they would expect, you know, through this.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Perfect. So let's just say you step one, you find your location.
Step two is then finding out whether that location is zoned to have alcohol. And every building, location, premise, whatever you want to deem it as, has a certain zoning associated to it, whether it be commercial, whether it be residential, whether it be manufacturing, industrial. The city has mapped it out to where it specifies what type of zoning you are. And each zoning allows for a particular usage. So it's imperative that you find out the premises that you're looking at, what zones that they're in.
Once you confirm that the zoning allows for the usage or the operations of what you're looking into, you then are going to go to the neighborhood council, you know, or the jurisdiction which governs locally that, that particular premise. Because you're going to want, you pick up a location that's high residential, where residents are like, we have enough alcohol licenses here, we don't want more. You're going to have a very difficult time garnering that support of these people. And you want the support because part of your permit application and, or, you know, state application may require neighborhood approval, depending on what state you're in, depending on what city you're in, in.
So let's say you've made the overture, the neighborhood council, you're, you're in their blessings. Then your next step is going to be with the city. And if the city requires any additional permitting, then you'll have to go through that process with the city. Once the city is done, you then go to the State level.
And the state level is where you actually get your alcohol license to then go ahead and operate. But prior to the state approving you for those things, you want to make sure you have all the necessary approvals from neighborhood council and municipality. So that's kind of your steps one through five. Certain states, certain cities, certain neighborhood councils require their own application for the each level.
For instance, we'll use Los Angeles because we're just talking about it. LA will have its own, within LA City you have your neighborhood council. So when you file for a location for a CUP conditional use permit in LA City, part of that CUP approval with the city requires neighborhood council approval. Okay, so once you get both of those approved and you get the blessing, the final stamp saying yes, you're good with this particular location, I have alcohol, then we can go handle the ABC Alcohol Beverage Control at the state level, which it's its own separate application.
Now ABC in California will not issue your liquor license until they see that approval from this, from the city, which is the conditional use permit. So you've got a lot of moving pieces and all of them have to do with governments ping ponging back and forth. And you better believe, and I'm sure plenty of listeners on this podcast already have gone through this, where the city and the state do not meet, the left and right hand do not meet. So it is up to you, the operator, to make sure that you're handing the state the city paperwork and vice versa. So that way all parties are under the same umbrella and have an understanding of what it is that you're applying for. And that's where I come in for you to, or keep that all organized and make sure all the municipalities, all the government agencies are getting what they need to. But that's pretty much the steps is location, neighborhood council, city, state, you know.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: And so in some states you just go, you apply, you get it. Like either the state issues it or whatever. And then we were talking before we hit record, I live in the great state of New Jersey, which it's a minefield. I'm sure this is not the only state out there. I mean Utah is certainly that. Those laws have changed so much in the last 15 years. That's its own thing. We talked a little bit about Philadelphia, you know, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Massachusetts is a tough one too.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: And so, but you deal with, you deal with all 50 states.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, pretty. And, and here's, here's what it comes down to. All like licenses, it's all like the way I explain, it's like math Right. It's. You have different levels of math. You have algebra, you have trigonometry, you have arithmetic. Like, and so liquor licenses, depending on the state you're in, is just the degree of difficulty of math is the. Is the way I look at it. But I.
But it's just how to interpret it. Right. It's all law. You interpret. You pick up the phone, you call. Some states are much easier to deal with than others. And those easy states, you may not need a guy like Jason, because Joe, on the other line of the phone, working at the Alcohol Beverage Control. Let's just call it in. In Texas, will literally walk you through everything that you need to do to where you don't need necessarily a Jason company, you know, but then people don't have time to necessarily listen to Joe.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: And they're like, okay, great, you're filling me in with all this, but I literally can't fill this in myself. Joe, can you do it? State's like, no, we don't do that. So then you bring in a guy like Jason Coke. But, yes, most states, though, are like, you know, it's all online. Go online, read the. Read the application, fill it out, send it in, and hope that it sticks.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: What I mean, so that's that.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: I assume there are instances where you do come across and you say, hey, no, you're set up in a perfect city, perfect state. I don't think you're gonna have any problem. Like, I'll take a look at it for you, but, like, you're gonna be really good. And there are others where you're like, I'm so glad you called me like this. This is. You really want somebody to navigate, you know, to thread the needle here. Right? I mean, I assume you sort of see all sides.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: If. If there's a. If it's an easier state, and it's a. Let's say any of these licenses are directly issued from the state. Full liquor, beer and wine only, whatever it may be.
And you have time. This is what I tell people. If you have time, go try it on your own. Save your money from paying me first. Go try it on your own. If you can't do it, you run into a roadblock. Then you call me back, you hire me, and then I'll carry the water, clean up the mess that you potentially made, and make sure it's all done right, and refile it for you. You know what I mean? Or, hey, you might have done a great job. And it's like, well, look, you don't have to pay my full fee because you're already at the 50 yard line. I just got it, you know, I just got to go the next 50 to the touchdown. So I, yes, I do advise that. But then there's certain states where it's like, you know, like, like the ones we mentioned. California, New York, you know, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania. Those are hard states. They're not easy to deal with, you know, and Illinois is another one. It's like. So if you. A lot of times people don't have the time to do that because opening up a restaurant or opening up a bar, there's a lot of other things that you got to take care of outside of just that little liquor license, you know, I mean, that might be your big revenue maker, but it's in comparison to everything else that you have to do in opening up, it's. It's a fraction.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so funny. Jason, we. So I run a couple of live events every year, and in January, just this past January, I was hosting the P3 marketing summit. So we get 110 restaurant owners in a room together and literally just pound through A to Z. This is how you market your restaurant in the year 2025. And my co host for the event is a guy named Rev Ciancio. And Rev is hands down the smartest marketer, smartest restaurant marketer I know. I love bringing him up on stage, sharing the stage, having him share the stage with me. And he says something on the very first day of the event when we get started. He says, listen, here's what you do. You figure out the two things you're great at, and then you delegate and outsource everything else. You. We're going to show you exactly how to do it right. But at the end of the day, if you're not good at this, if you don't have the bandwidth for it, then don't do it. But now we're teaching you how to teach your people, or now we're teaching you the right questions to ask the agency you bring on the social media person to whatever it is as you're talking. It leads me to believe that this is way too important for most businesses to risk screwing up. And while this might be something that somebody can do, it's ultimately not something. For me, it's like, feels like playing with fire. Like, I wouldn't want to mess this up because of the revenue that it will add to the top line and the profitability that I know it means to the bottom line. I imagine that's how you see it?
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, if you think about it from a restaurant perspective, you know, a lot of times restaurant owners are chefs, right? And the chefs are really great at producing the food, creating a menu, the ingredients, all that lovely stuff. You know, they. And they usually outsource their cocktail program. So they'll bring in a bartender or someone with experience who knows how to make these drinks and create a program for themselves.
And a lot of times the chefs are like, they don't do paperwork. They know how to. They know how to whisk the egg properly. They know how to cook a steak medium rare to perfection. They know how to season things to perfection. They're not like, how do I fill out this affidavit? Where do I dot this? I do I put this. I got a DUI 30 years ago when I was 21 years old. Do I put this on this form? Oh, my financial investment. Well, I'm not really putting money and I'm getting a loan. How do I. So all these little details, right. And they're all subject to law, right? There's ordinances that you know, and business and profession codes that all these forms are associated to. So, yes, if you don't fill them out correctly, it could delay you. And all of a sudden, chef is ready to do his grand opening, and he's got a beautiful menu curator. He's done all of his marketing. He's hired Chip to say, hey, consult me on how to get this brand out there. And he's ready to open on Valentine's Day weekend. And he's got no liquor license because why he messed up his affidavit or he missed. He didn't do one form or he did everything correctly. And estates asking for more documentation. He just missed the email because he's busy. He or she's busy doing something else with the business. So those little things is really what may delay a particular restaurateur operator. And when it comes to bars and restaurants, missing your opening because your liquor license, like that should never be the case. That's something so easy, like you said, that you can outsource, someone can fix for you, someone can deal with to where you're not having to worry about that. The retail side of things, if you own a gas station or a market, you have other items that you're selling or providing to the public where alcohol may not be your biggest crux of revenue. But any locations that are on site consumption, you need to have your alcohol license there. When you're ready for opening, there's nothing worse than opening your doors and not having your booze ready. People walk in like, wait, I thought you guys marketed that. You have cocktails here. Oh, yeah, well, we're waiting on our license. No, no, no, that's a bad luck.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: It's coming.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: It's coming. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Nobody wants to show up on Valentine's Day, order two glasses of champagne for you and your lady and be like, actually correct.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: It's apple cider. It's Martinelli's.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: All right, so talk to me about the different.
Listen, I've been doing this for a long time, but mainly in food service. In the restaurant world and in the markets I was in, it was always a foregone conclusion. People were already 80 yards down the field, you know, had taken care of this, had people like you in their corner.
Talk to me about the different licenses that are out there. This audience is mainly restaurants, but even within that, there's a lot of different options out there. So talk to talk me through those things. I think the audience will get a lot out of it.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Totally. So really the big difference, the big two licenses for restaurants is either going to be a beer and wine only or a full liquor. Right.
A lot of people actually, and as crazy it may sound, they. They make the mistake of thinking that full liquor doesn't include beer and wine, but it does. So we'll just clarify for any of the listeners out there that were confused about that. When you get a full liquor license, it includes beer, wine, soju, sake, the whole nine yards. When you go beer and wine only, then you're taking out. You're not serving tequila, you're not serving the gin, you're not serving the vodka, you're not serving the whiskey. Whiskey. Of course, there is a price difference between the two, regardless of whether the state is a non quota. Meaning you can go directly to the alcohol liquor board and get it. Get the license directly from the state. A full liquor license is always going to be more expensive than a beer and wine. Only a lot of the states have a quota for full liquor, meaning that you got to go buy one of these on the open market. And you know, going back to your point, like in New Jersey and, or like even in Boston, you know, Chip, you could have a liquor license at a restaurant across the street from me. I'm literally across the double solid yellow line there, and I'm now in different jurisdiction or township. Your license cannot apply to my location. Even though I can putt a golf ball over to you.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: So it's important that when you are looking for your license and the type, if it is a quota, that you're getting it within the appropriate area. A lot of them tend to be county to county in most states. Some are municipality based, some are township based.
I know I just did a deal with in Boston for Arc Light Pacific Theaters. They went bankrupt. And you know, I told the trustee, I said, look, we're not gonna, you're not gonna find a whole lot of buyers out there. Your best buyer is gonna be someone going back into the same location because of how tight the areas are, the jurisdiction and be. And it's like, hey, the guy across the street doesn't qualify for that license, he's in a different township. So we ended up selling it to someone that bought the property and took it over. And I find that that's more likely in states like Jersey, like Pennsylvania, like New York, like Massachusetts, because again, they're, they're harder to find. Whereas if we move over to migrate to like California, Arizona, there's a large population of people who have gone out of business that are just sitting on their license that are willing to sell and those are tradable within the county. And obviously if we take like LA county, it's huge, right? Like LA county might be the size of the five boroughs in New York total, right? So all of a sudden now we have maybe 200 licenses sitting not, you know, being used in LA county, which obviously is going to drop the value and there's a lot more availability. So it is imperative that wherever you're opening up and you have to also check whether the type of license you're looking for is a quota or non quota, you know what I mean? And most beer, beer and wines, unless it's a very sensitive area, are directly issued from the government. But yeah, depending on also your business. Like I tell, I tell people who want to open up a sushi restaurant, you don't need full liquor, you just need to be able to sell the sake and the beer. That's what people come in for to drink, go with a beer and wine license. Someone wants to open up a Mexican restaurant and they want to do Taco Tuesday and Margarita Mondays and all that. And they're like, well, I was just thinking about going beer and wine. Nope, you got to go for the full liquor because if you're anywhere with within like a mile radius of another Mexican restaurant that has full liquor, serving tequila and everything, people are going to walk out of your business the moment they walk in realizing you don't have that. So you know, I always ask clients or potential clients, well, what kind of operation, what business are you starting with a restaurant? What kind of food do you want to serve? What kind of crowd are you trying to bring up? Because you know, some restauranteurs, they want to serve full liquor, but they don't want to be open till in, in the state of California be open till 2am Right. They don't want to deal with that midnight to 2am crowd because those guys aren't really coming in to order food, they're coming in to get drinks.
Then you have bar own are like, Jason, I want to be open right at 6am and they want to close at 2am they want the full gambit for California, that particular state. So, you know, it just, it just really depends on, on how you want to operate, what you're going to serve that's really going to dictate, you know, where you land in regards to two types of licenses there.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: I love it.
We've gone, we've gone really deep in a, in a short amount of time. What did I not think to ask what have you learned over the last couple of years or in all these years doing it that the listeners should know when it to comes comes to this stuff?
[00:30:05] Speaker B: I would say the biggest thing that I learned in particular to this podcast and the listeners is restaurateurs really need to have perseverance, patience and perseverance.
One thing I've, I've seen through my experience is that people think immediately when you get your liquor license, you open your doors, the money just should be rolling in. But it's, it doesn't. Just because you have the licenses to do what you need to make money doesn't necessarily mean it equates to making money money. And so branding, you know, working with a guy like yourself and understanding how to market your restaurant is really, I think the important piece because if you do that right, the right way, people want to drink, people want to come in and have a nice glass of wine with their meals. So if you're serving great food, you're marketing yourself, you have, you know, your staff is very professional and courteous and things like that, people are going to keep coming back to eat at your restaurant, they're going to keep coming back to drink, and that's where you make your money on the alcohol like license is the reoccurring business.
Because some guy can come in, come once, he had terrible service at your restaurant, he had a great cocktail, he's not going to remember how good that cocktail tasted. He's going to remember the service was crap and never come back again. But if your service is good and your martini is average, he'll keep coming back and keep drinking that same damn martini. You know what I mean? So.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: But you got the license to be able to serve in the martini, Correct?
[00:31:22] Speaker B: And that's where your revenue news are coming in. It's through the reoccurring clientele and, and your marketing and, and the demands. So I always try and explain to people, look, if it starts out slow, don't be like, wow, my liquor. I'm not selling enough booze. It's. How are you getting people to come back in to drink and eat at your establishment? Yeah, that's really the key factor.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: I love it. Jason, I've loved this conversation. I want to be really aware of your time. Where, where should we send people if they want to go learn more about this, about you, what your company does. They say, oh my God, I really need somebody in my corner.
Where should they be going?
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Perfect. You can check out my website. It's a, a a liquor licenses dot com. So AAA liquor licenses dot com. You can call me direct 323-510-7831. You can also email me Jason J a s o n@a a a liquor licenses dot com.
Follow us on socials, Instagram, Facebook is @AAA liquor licenses. I have a YouTube channel, AAA liquor license consulting.
I'm sure Chip's gonna put a link somewhere on this. Or click the link below and you'll have me all those ways. I also have a 24 hour callback. Well, I'm very diligent about that. So email me, call me. You'll get a return call back from me or a return email.
Gladly. Help you where I can.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: I love it. Yep. And Jason, you're exactly right. We're gonna put all of that in the show notes. I love it. The email, the website, and the phone number. Clutch. My phone number is all over the Internet. It's one of the best things I like, like, I like being reachable. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: I got nothing to hide.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: And if anybody wants. Really dense. I love it. Because this conversation, Jason, you really kept it very clear, concise.
You made it sound approachable. Even though I think we know that. It's not that there's a lot of complexity, which you did, but when you go find this guy on social, you will see just how complex it is. And he's really like, giving it away, but I know, like, my head was spinning just looking at some of this stuff. And listening to. Listening to you talk. You obviously have the 10,000 hours to have become an expert in this, so I'm grateful to have you on this and share sort of what you've learned with the audience. I'm sure there are people out there who need what you do, so I appreciate all of that, Jason, appreciate you taking the time. Thanks so much, buddy.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: Thank you. Take care.
