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Chamblee became the latest metro Atlanta city to create a downtown entertainment district with an open container policy.
The new open container ordinance took effect Saturday, July 1, and allows restaurant and bar patrons to consume off-premise booze within a designated area between Ingersoll Rand Drive and McGaw Drive. As in cities like Decatur and Marietta, there are strict rules for both restaurants and diners to follow, including establishments serving drinks in clear plastic cups with their logo on it and an authorized sticker from the city and people disposing of alcoholic beverages in the district by 10 p.m., before prohibited hours begin.
“Any person who possesses an open alcoholic beverage outside the District, or after 10:00 p.m. within the District, or in an unauthorized container, is in violation of the City Code and may be subject to a citation and/or fine,” the ordinance reads.
Here are the restaurants and bars currently included as part of Chamblee’s downtown entertainment district:
Rojo Cocina Mexicana and Cantina
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
Chamblee joins other metro Atlanta cities like Decatur, Marietta, Dunwoody, Canton, Smyrna, Powder Springs, Kennesaw, and Acworth in establishing downtown entertainment districts with open container policies. These districts are meant to not only promote local businesses and walkability, but provide opportunities for people to gather and socialize within the community.
Atlanta has yet to permanently establish any entertainment districts around town, including along the Beltline, opting instead to test out temporarily closing streets with multiple bars and restaurants on the weekends and shutting down portions of major thoroughfares throughout the city a few times a year for pedestrian events like Streets Alive.
In 2021, Gov. Brian Kemp signed SB 236 into law, greenlighting to-go cocktails from restaurants and bars across the state. Like many of Georgia’s alcohol laws, the rules surrounding to-go booze are weedy. Restaurants and bars with a valid food service permit and alcohol license to serve distilled spirits can sell up to two cocktails per takeout entree ordered in approved, sealed containers. Cocktails must be made the same day the drinks are ordered and contain no more than three ounces of distilled spirits. Drinks must also be sold to and picked up by the same person who ordered with a valid I.D. That means people can’t order to-go cocktails for delivery via third party services like UberEats, Zifty, or Postmates. Local municipalities have the option to prohibit the sale of to-go cocktails outright or put the measure to a public vote.
Georgia was one of over 30 states to recently approve new laws permitting the sale of to-go cocktails, with many states fast-tracking the legislation during the height of the pandemic and dining room closures in 2020 and 2021.
