This Kansas City bookstore wants to sell wine. Outdated ordinances put a cork in it

Bliss Books & Wine, a new business near Kansas City’s Hyde Park neighborhood, has a storefront sitting empty. Unless the Kansas City Council’s Alcohol Beverage Advisory Board acts, owners and sisters La’Nesha Frazier and La’Nae Robinson would have wasted valuable time and resources.

The business was denied a liquor license based on density and hasn’t opened yet, Frazier told us during a recent tour of the space.

“Without a liquor license, it’s just Bliss Books,” she said.

The shop is located near three local schools. But that isn’t the issue. Kansas City Public Schools’ Foreign Language Academy and Académie Lafayette, a French-immersion charter school, support letting the business open, Frazier said.

The sisters have the backing of a neighborhood group, too. So why aren’t the doors open? Bureaucratic red tape has slowed progress. Bliss Books & Wine remains an online-only operation for now.

“There are currently 11 businesses with retail sales by drink/tavern liquor licenses located within a 3,000-foot radius,” Jim Ready, manager of Kansas City’s Regulated Industries Division, wrote in a letter denying the owners request for a liquor license.

“The population within the same 3,000-foot radius is 9,151. A minimum population of 18,000 is required before a retail sales by drink tavern license could be issued at this location,” the letter continued.

The problem is not unique to Frazier and Robinson, who planned to open their brick-and-mortar location near Gillham Road and East Armour Boulevard this month. Not many drinking establishments are nearby.

Other business owners throughout the city have been denied a right to serve alcohol because of density issues, something Ready acknowledges needs to be addressed.

Earlier this year, the City Council, based on recommendations from the Alcohol Beverage Advisory Group, rightfully revised some of the ordinances that govern liquor licenses. But the amendments didn’t go far enough. Aspects of the process are still outdated, Ready wrote in a proposal for more changes.

Kansas City’s “density model has become antiquated because there are many different types of businesses that have an interest in getting a liquor license that are not simply categorized as a ‘tavern’ or a ‘package store’,” he wrote.

Frazier and Robinson can relate.

The sisters’ monthly lease payments — $3,000 per month — begin in June. Because of density restrictions, the business may not open until later this summer.

Will alcohol be served when it does?

Bliss Books & Wine not a tavern or nightclub

The city’s cumbersome ordinances limit the number of liquor licenses available in a particular area. Rules are in place to limit the proliferation of package liquor stores and taverns, city officials said.

Bliss Books & Wine is a bookstore, not a tavern or a nightclub, the owners rightfully argue. City officials must do all that it can to ensure small business owners are competing on a level playing field.

City Council members Andrea Bough and Eric Bunch are aware of the situation. Bough has spoken with Frazier directly.

Next month at its bimonthly meeting, the advisory group must consider approving some of the changes proposed by Ready. The City Council would have final say on any updates.

If approved by the full council, the manager of the city’s Regulated Industries Division would have discretion to greenlight or deny an applicant’s request on a case-by-case basis.

Balancing the interests of business owners and the neighboring community is crucial. “We think there is a fix,” said Bunch, the 4th District councilman. “But the wheels of bureaucracy turn slow.”

The owners of Bliss Books & Wine envision book lovers sipping on wine at their tasting bar or pouring a drink for themselves from a self-serve station. But their path has proven challenging.

That must change. And it’s on the Kansas City Council to make it easier for startups to enter the market, not harder.

What’s wrong with curling up at a local independent bookstore to read a good book and drink a glass of wine, anyway?