LOS ANGELES, CA (STL.News) Representing Palmdale’s Transplants Brewing, the Parris Law Firm demanded that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors change its reopening guidelines to allow breweries County wide to reopen.
Under existing guidelines, breweries could reopen if they served food with the sale of beer. State guidelines allowed breweries to contract with food truck to provide the food. County guidelines, however, required food to be prepared in an on-site kitchen. Like Transplants, most breweries lack a kitchen in which to prepare food. As a result, the County’s guidelines resulted in an almost complete shutdown of most of Los Angeles’ microbreweries.
The Parris Law Firm demanded that the County change the guidelines to be in line with those of the State. The Firm threatened to sue the County unless it took action to change the guidelines at its September 29, 2020, Board meeting.
In response to the Firm’s demand, on September 29 the County Board of Supervisors voted to align the County’s guidelines with those of the State, and allow breweries to serve food prepared by vendors:
Given that the State of California allows breweries to partner with a third-party permitted food vendor to operate at a limited capacity outdoors, it would be prudent for the County to realign with the State and advance to this step.
This win is a tremendous victory for hard-working business owners who have been crushed by the mass COVID-19-related closures which have been in place since March of this year. The LA Controller’s Office reported that more than 50,000 jobs in the food and beverage industry had been lost due to these lockdown measures and many were the result of breweries and vineyards being forced to close. “Our attorneys went to bat on this very issue last week, demanding that the Board recognize that its reopening guidelines were misguided and unnecessary,” said attorney Khail Parris. “The hardworking men and women who poured their lives into some of the most innovative establishments in Los Angeles can now reopen and pick up the pieces left behind by the pandemic,” said R. Rex Parris. “The firm thanks the Board for recognizing that the issues our attorneys raised were worthy of examination and ultimately a change to the County’s reopening policy.”