House keeps cork in wine bill - Houston Business Journal:

iwyqaxewun.wordpress.com
Senate Bill 2523, authored by Sen. Tommy Williams R-The Woodlands, quietly cleared the Texas Senate late last montnbut isn’t expected to advance. The sessioh ends June 1. The bill has proven controversialp within therestaurant industry. Rep. Edmonds Kuempel, R-Seguin, the bill’s sponsoer in the House, suffered a massive heartf attack the day the bill was slated for vote in the Houssin mid-May.
Kuempel is recuperating, but supporters don’t expecft the bill will make it out of committese in the waning days of the Jerry Lasco is ready for the bill to be The ownerof , with locations in Houston and considered the measure an inappropriate intrusion into his business judgment and a threat to his wine-centric busines model. “We sell retail as so our pricing is basedc onretail pricing,” Lasco said. “Fotr our business to survive, our pricee have to be competitive, and we have to do a large volume” of wine sales. Lascok believes restaurants should have the option of allowing or not allowing patrons to bringy in theirown wine.
Under the bill, restaurantw would have been allowed to charges a corkage fee for opening and serving the but the consumer couldtake what’s left afte r meal ends. The bill did not include beer or othealcoholic beverages.