WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. -- As of Monday, July 1st, restaurants and bars are able to purchase liquor from any distributor they want. In the past, those same businesses needed to go through one of the county dispensaries.
Peter Roskovich, owner of Adam's Taphouse Grill, already took advantage of his newfound freedom.
"We met with our distributor Breakthrough Beverage this morning, my rep. Sean Wilson came in," said Roskovich. "Put our first order in, case of Smirnoff, bottles of Casa Migos so it's all good."
Roskovich said the new rules give his store and therefore his customers more options, but said the county dispensaries won't be left out in the cold.
"We can also still buy from the county, so the hybrid system is going to be a good thing as well in case we're short a bottle or it's something I don't want to buy a case lot of," said Roskovich.
The new system was made possible after Governor Wes Moore signed HB 1340 back in May.
The "Yes on the Wicomico County Charter Amendment" group did tell WBOC they are against this new system. They said the hybrid system will "reduce the profit that the Dispensary provides to the County. Over the past several years, the Dispensary has generated about $1 million annually, which funds schools, infrastructure and other vital needs. This important source of funding to the County government will now be diminished."
Over at Pit & Pub, owner David Knestout said he's looking forward to spending more time in-house and less time running down the street to pick up liquor orders.
"We have so much going on a lot of times and that's just one extra place we have to run to," said Knestout. "It[new system] can save you and hour worth of your day."
Overall, Knestout feels this is a win-win for businesses and their customers.
"It's great, I'm super excited about it," said Knestout. "The prices are a little better which will then come full circle in the restaurants, we won't have to charge as much."
The county dispensaries did start delivering to businesses in recent years, but owners told us the new way of ordering already seems faster.
"It's one truck, one delivery, more streamlined for us," said Roskovich.
Restaurants and bars are still free to buy from the county dispensaries, and Roskovich said turning to the county for certain products will be the cheaper route.