Tuesday, December 1, 2009

God Almighty only asked for ten...

Saw this over at City Paper; Drew Lazor's on the job. Ultimo Coffee/Brew bistro has opened their doors -- back in May -- but while their coffee has been nothing short of frackin' amazing (See? Was it really that hard?), there's still no beer in their big, beautiful coolers. How come? That would be the PLCB.

See, much as apparently almost everyone in the area (and this one fella, out here in Bucks) would love for that great beer to show up, one guy is holding things up by saying he doesn't want their license approved. According to The Almighty Liquor Code (Section 4-402), if anyone within 500 feet of the place objects within 15 days of the application, there has to be a hearing. Now, said 'one guy' apparently lives over 600 feet away, but remember the prologue of The Almighty Liquor Code:

This act shall be deemed an exercise of the police power of the Commonwealth for the protection of the public welfare, health, peace and morals of the people of the Commonwealth and to prohibit forever the open saloon, and all of the provisions of this act shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of
this purpose.
So there you are. Although, as alluded to in the post title, God required Abraham to find 10 righteous men in Sodom; the PLCB is willing to hold things up for just one? And where does it say that setting up the hearing has to take six months?

The hearing will finally take place on December 11, and the 'one guy' (no relation to Berwick Brewing, née One Guy Brewing, of course) will get an opportunity to stand up and state just why it is that they object to the license. Assuming they show up...I'd love to hear what their beef is, and I'd really like to see if it's worth one person having held up a the business of a person who has demonstrably improved the Newbold neighborhood. Or if it's just hot air. Not that I'm pre-judging, or anything.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lew, as someone who used to work at a Wawa, I can tell you the reason they don't do thermoses: volume. There is simply too much coffee being sold to make the added complexity of rinsing and refilling carafes an efficient solution. Sunoco can have carafes, but I bet they don't sell 200-plus gallons of coffee every morning.

We used to have thermal carafes, and every time they emptied out (they only held two pots) we had to rinse them out and brew more coffee to put in there, adding extra downtime between pours.

The fact is that Wawa employees know the current system isn't all it could be, but it satisfied 90% of the customers very well (they all smoke and many of them irish it up anyway, so I don't know how much taste factors into that). If you ever want a fresh pot, just ask for one. If you're willing to wait the minute or so it will take, they will even make one for you. Hell, you can probably even call ahead of time and say, "Hey, I'll be here in ten minutes, can put on a fresh pot of ____ for me? Thanks."

The system isn't ideal, no, but people that care enough about good coffee to wait for it can get it.