Wine at Gallery Walk

Acting City Attorney Lynn Lorenson has just informed the common council that "the organizers of the Gallery Walk have been notified that they cannot serve wine during this event without obtaining an appropriate license. " Lynn's email continues:

The City of Oshkosh adopts the Wisconsin State Statutes regulating the licensing and distribution of alcohol beverages. While some additional information may be required, based upon our conversations with the Gallery Walk representatives it would appear that the Gallery Walk organization would qualify for a temporary "Class B" license. However, state law limits the number of special "Class B" licenses for dispensing wine to two (2) in a year per organization. Because of this limit, Gallery Walk would either need to seek a change in state law removing this limit for wine service (special "Class B" licenses for beer are not limited in this same manner) or would need to find other non-profit organizations willing to take out a license for the other ten (10) Gallery Walk events held each year. In our conversations with the state licensing enforcement people, they were not certain why the limitation had been included as to wine events.

In order to properly operate, in addition to licensing, there are several other requirements that will need to be met. For example, all wine must be purchased from a wholesaler. All dispensing of alcohol must be done under the supervision of a licensed bartender. This would require the presence of a licensed bartender at each establishment serving alcohol. The organizers would need to determine whether there would be a single or multiple locations dispensing wine and whether multiple locations would be covered under a single or multiple licenses for the event. If the establishments serving wine are relatively contiguous and the license is for a single event, a single license may be issued to cover all locations. Again, this would require some additional information to be provided to the City when the license is applied for. As a side note, different locations could be included or excluded for each monthly event. If a multiple location license were applied for we would require a listing of addresses and map depicting serving locations for each event to assist us in evaluating the license application.