Osceola County cities make push for small restaurants to serve liquor

KISSIMMEE, Fl. — There's a new push from a couple of cities in Osceola County for lawmakers to make it easier for small restaurants to serve liquor.

Restaurant owners in Kissimmee and St. Cloud believe the ability to serve liquor would boost sales immensely.

"I think it'll be a huge impact, especially in the amount of traffic," said restaurant owner Jorge Espinosa. Espinosa's restaurant already has the ability to serve beer and wine, but believes the addition of liquor would be a gamechanger.

Espinosa wants lawmakers to pass a measure that would allow area restaurants to obtain a special liquor license if the restaurant had 50 seats and was at least 1,000 square feet.

Without the change, Espinosa said that restaurants looking to expand their drink menus would likely have to pay much more.

Lawmakers approved a smiliar bill for restaurants in downtown Orlando which reduced the size requirements for restaurants from 2,500 square feet down to 1,800 square feet.

Kissimmee and St. Cloud restaurant owners will have a couple of months to wait on any headway, as lawmakers won't return to session until March.

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Cox Media Group