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Pizza Shops Could Soon Deliver Beer

LUZERNE COUNTY — Sabatini’s Pizza has been a family business in Exeter for nearly 6 decades, and for many of those years, people have been coming in...
beer

LUZERNE COUNTY -- Sabatini's Pizza has been a family business in Exeter for nearly 6 decades, and for many of those years, people have been coming in to grab some beer when they pick up their pizza. So when the Pennsylvania Liquor and Control Board announced that pizza places could start delivering beer, Owner Lindo Sabatini couldn't believe it.

"We've been thinking about it," he said. "It's exciting. There's a lot of people that would like to have beer delivered to them."

Here's how it would work - pizza shops would apply for a license, then be able to deliver up to 192 ounces of beer, or about two six-packs.

"I think there's be a lot of popularity for that in the area," said Paul Degillio. "I think it would grow sales tremendously. I really do! "

But some business owners like those at Tommy's Pizza Corner in Kingston say there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered.

"Too many problems could arise from that," said Tom Hannigan, owner.

Hannigan says Tommy's Pizza has been in Kingston for nearly 35 years, and for 31 of those years, they've been selling beer inside their restaurant. But the idea of delivering beer isn't something that sits well with him.

"You've got somebody 22 years old and they order beer and we deliver it and there's 18 year olds in the house," he explained.

And Sabatini agrees, there's a lot left to figure out.

"We have to figure it out with our attorney how we're going to do it without getting ourselves in trouble," said Sabatini.

One of the biggest sticking points with business owners is that the ruling means the beer sale must happen at the restaurant - not with the deliver driver.

"The whole idea of the sale happening before it leaves the restaurant and we have to do a credit card here over the phone then deliver the beer," explained Sabatini. "You didn't card the person first so you have to figure out how that's going to work."

According to the ruling, the delivery driver would be responsible for carding the customer.

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