Story Category: Politics »

The fourth time was a charm. In their fourth appearance this year before the St. Mary’s Alcohol Beverage Board (liquor board) the owners of the McKay’s grocery chain got approval for their new concept for the flagship Hollywood store.

The liquor board unanimously approved the transfer of the store’s existing Class A – Beer, Wine and Liquor license to a Class B Restaurant license. That will allow them to covert the store into a combination restaurant, wine bar, take out prepared food store, small convenience store and expanded liquor store. The McKay’s attorney Michael Davis called the proposal a hybrid.

Two months ago the board denied a request to split the store into two sections, the liquor store and everything else, under two licenses.  The matriarch of the McKay’s family, Marilyn McKay would have held the liquor license and Laschelle McKay, wife of Thomas McKay (Marilyn McKay’s son), would have held the restaurant license under the name Fresh Express.

McKay, a former county commissioner president, told the liquor board that the alcohol beverage sections, which will continue to be on the left entering the store, will be greatly expanded to include a larger selection of wines and craft beers. He said the concept was an attempt to save the location which had been losing money as a grocery store.

McKay said the trend in the country is for prepared food and that 75 percent of meals are at restaurants or take out prepared. He said the food portion of the business would be 90 percent of the sales in the new format.

Under the concept that was approved, Mrs. McKay would continue to be the license holder. The board has ruled that the license held by the store that has been in existence for 60 years was grandfathered under a state law that prohibits chain grocery stores from holding liquor licenses.

In opposing the license, David Dent, representing the St. Mary’s County Retail Beverage Association, said the grandfather provision went with the license and not with the business and to transfer from one class to another would cause the McKays to lose their grandfathering protection. He said Prince George’s was the only county is the state with legal provisions to transfer the license and retain the grandfathering.

Davis argued that just because there was a provision specifically for Prince George’s did not mean that other counties couldn’t do the same thing. And Thomas McKay, who stood in for his mother who is recovering from an injury, said other counties had done the same thing.

Attorney James Tamavage, sitting in for board attorney Joann Wood, noted the complexity of the state law and told the board, “There is no clear answer. You can make an argument to allow or to disallow.”

During the hearing Board Chairman Moses Saldana, who had led the arguments to disallow the previous application, this time led the discussion in favor of the revised plan and pushed for a decision at the meeting to accommodate the plans to reopen the store with the new concept by the middle of September.

McKay said they would not use the Fresh Express moniker, but instead were leaning towards McKay’s Express Market. In addition to other regulatory approvals, such as Fire Marshal’s consent and a Use and Occupancy Permit, a request for a name change will have to be submitted and ratified by the board, although McKay was told that would be no problem.