MICHIGAN — Restaurants are waiting months for liquor license approval, losing out on thousands of dollars in alcohol revenue as the Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) works to process thousands of applications.
There are more than 40 different kinds of liquor licenses in Michigan and thousands of applications the Michigan liquor license commission goes through for approval on any given day. A Class C liquor license allows a restaurant or bar to sell and serve beer, wine, mixed spirit drink, and spirits to customers.
There are currently 8,152 total Class C licenses in Michigan and 234 in the city of Grand Rapids alone.
Somewhere in the application process, there's a delay. Restaurants FOX 17 spoke to say they're losing out on much-needed revenue by waiting months, even up to a year to get approval from the state.
Sip Coffee & Cocktails opened up in November only being able to serve coffee, no cocktails. They wanted to open with both coffee and alcohol, but couldn't wait for approval from the state much longer. They were finally able to serve alcohol in December.
"It's taken about a year to get. A year or more to get the liquor license," co-owner Jonathan Farman said.
Their business isn't alone, signs all across Grand Rapids let customers know they're patiently waiting for their licenses. Soho Sushi in downtown Grand Rapids has had a "Liquor Coming Soon" sign on their front door for weeks.
"I tell them [customers] that 'I'm sorry, we don't have a like liquor license yet you will have to wait,'" Soho Sushi manager Fay Tao said. "And pretty much 90 percent of the time people will cancel their reservation."
Tao joined Soho Sushi as a manger recently, and with that change in ownership the restaurant had to reapply for a liquor license that they'd already had for years.
"We were expecting to receive our new liquor license within a month of submission, which was last September, " Tao said.
Four months later and still no license, no boom in business. The restaurant was closed for the duration of COVID-19 and was hoping their reopening would generate extra revenue. But they're left struggling to make ends meet as they work to get updates from the MLCC.
"We don't know where we are. That's the hardest part, we're kind of in a black box," Tao added.
Richard App, who works with restaurants to help them in this process as a retail and retention and attraction specialist, is seeing the struggles first hand.
"The real frustration that I'm hearing is that there's a lack of communication and that it's just slow," App said.
If you're a business in downtown Grand Rapids you need three forms of approval for your license: First from the Downtown Development Authority, then from the city commission and lastly, from the MLCC in Lansing.
If you're outside the city you only need approval from the city commission and then the state. App says at the state level is where the hold up usually is.
"I think a lot of times, unfortunately, let's say somebody fills out something incorrectly, it comes back and you almost have to start that entire process over," App says about the lengthy process.
Sometimes the mistake comes from the businesses themselves, other times from MLCC itself.
For example, in the case of Soho Sushi, Fay admits she forgot to add a number to one line in the application and had to redo the entire thing. But another time the board emailed Soho Sushi three times with important information to the wrong email address.
"They wrote the email address wrong. They sent it three times, three times each time they spelled it wrong," Tao said.
App explains that this waiting and back and fourth is a huge financial burden.
"You can lose 30, 40 percent of your income on something like that," he said.
FOX 17 reached out to the MLCC multiple times. First in December for an interview to ask about the hold ups. We received an email back detailing the process and providing some statistics. They said in part:
"For FY22 (October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022), the Licensing Division processed the following:
- 99.8% of all licensing applications were processed within 90 days (a statutory requirement); 94.5% were processed within 60 days (non-statutory)
- 10,832 license applications approved (up from 4,848 in FY21)
- 9,921 permits approved
- 21,475 renewal licenses approved
- Overall, more than 100,000 licenses (new and renewal) and permits were processed and approved"
We then reached out in January to follow up on some of those numbers and to see why some businesses are waiting up to a year. They declined an interview and sent us another statement reading in part:
"Delay in the obtaining a liquor license occurs when applications are incomplete, missing information or documentation required by licensing statute; or changes in the application requires additional documentation. commission staff works diligently with each applicant to ensure their application is complete and processed timely."
They went on to say:
"The mission of the commission is to make alcoholic beverages available for consumption while protecting the consumer and the general public..."
Tao says they're willing to jump through the hoops to obtain a license, but hope for more clarity and communication in the process.
"Let us know every step of the way know what is going to be needed exactly," she said.
Despite the delays and frustrations, the boom in business is not slowing down any time soon and applications will continue flooding into the MLCC.
"So hopefully that is something that we can improve in 2023 with the businesses, because I don't see us slowing down as far as opening businesses," App added.
MLCC resources
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Richard App is also willing to help businesses struggling through the process at richard@grandrapids.org
