Via City Desk, the Dupont Current (not available online) has a short piece about how the Logan Circle advisory neighborhood commission has given the go-ahead for the P Street Whole Foods to continue selling single-sale beers in the grocery store. The decision reportedly comes after eight months of such sales at the Whole Foods “without major conflict,” but the Current notes that just around the corner on 14th Street, the reputable Barrel House Liquors is barred from selling single beers up to 40 ounces.

Seems like a pretty obvious double-standard in place here: Whole Foods sells fancy single beer to rich people, while neighborhood liquor stores like Barrel House would presumably sell cheap beer and malt liquor to poor people who might drink it on the street. Rusty over at why.i.hate.dc sums it up pretty well:

I mean, I get it. This is fancy beer and the singles laws are primarily designed to prevent people from buying 40s. Since they don’t make organic Steel Reserve High Gravity yet (and I long for that day), Whole Foods isn’t in the business of selling malt liquor.

But getting it doesn’t mean it’s right. You have one rule being applied differently to two different businesses. Unacceptable. If you want to allow Whole Foods to sell singles of beer, then change the law and apply it equally to both businesses. Maybe prevent stores from selling singles with an abv above 7% (although this would crush Indian Pale Ale single sales) or only outlaw singles between 24 and 40 ounces. But don’t give one a break just because it has “fancier” customers.

Single alcohol sales have long been a point of contention in different D.C. neighborhoods, leading to singles bans in places like Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant, where loitering has been an issue in the past. A new ban was recently put in place along a gentrifying stretch of H Street NE.

What do you think about the Logan Circle ANC’s decision to apply a ban to certain kinds of businesses, but not to others?

Photo by Samer Farha