Collierville’s Board of Mayor & Aldermen has passed sweeping updates to the town’s beer ordinance—revising provisions that had remained largely unchanged since 1983.
The vote came this week on third and final reading, and the changes could have far-reaching effects on restaurants, retailers, and breweries in the Memphis surburb.
Among the most notable revisions:
- Liquor store licenses will be granted at a ratio of one per 10,000 residents, based on the most recent federal census. Previously, there was a flat limit of three liquor stores. Now, Collierville will allow two more liquor stores to open.
- Distance requirements between alcohol-selling establishments and schools, churches, or public institutions have been eliminated. That clears the way for businesses such as Dyer’s Cafe, a burger spot on the Town Square, to apply for a liquor license after years of being restricted by its proximity to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
- Outdated prohibitions—including bans on video games, dancing, pool tables, and “brown bagging”—have been struck from the books. A requirement that businesses maintain a telephone was also removed. (Apparently, these were all real things.)
A major shift for breweries
Perhaps the most consequential change for the craft beer community is the elimination of a longstanding rule that required on-premise permit holders to show that at least 50% of their revenue came from food prepared and sold on site.
For breweries, that rule effectively meant no taprooms could operate without a kitchen.
That restriction loomed large in 2020, when Hook Point Brewing Co.—which was in the process of opening a production facility in Collierville—also pursued plans for a taproom.
Initially, Hook Point had planned to open a food truck to meet the 50% requirement in the ordinance. In response, the town doubled down, amending the law to make it clear that catering services, food trucks and snack items did not count.
That led Hook Point to abandon the idea of a Collierville taproom and look elsewhere.
“There’s just too many restrictions,” Hook Point Brewing owner Mike Sadler told The Commercial Appeal at the time. “It’s just not going to be financially feasible for us right now.”
In 2023, the brewery opened The Ready Room taproom in East Memphis on Brookhaven Circle, where both Hook Point beers and food were sold.
But that location closed earlier this year due to “extenuating and unresolved circumstances,” followed by the shuttering of Hook Point’s Collierville facility and the retirement of the brand.
The fate of Hook Point appears to have gone largely unmentioned in local media coverage of Collierville’s beer law updates. Yet if the town had relaxed its food requirement earlier, Hook Point may have had a path to a hometown taproom that could have strengthened its chances of survival.
While Hook Point is gone, its separate macro-style Original Glory brand lives on—now brewed at Meddlesome Brewing Co. in Cordova under an arrangement with Hook Point’s founder.
Maroon Brew Co’s perspective
For Maroon Brew Co, which opened last year in Collierville, the 50% food rule was a hurdle they had to clear. The requirement forced Maroon Brew to build out a kitchen before opening, something owner Maggie Emerson worried about at the time.
Could Maroon Brew sell enough hot dogs and burgers to satisfy the legal requirements?
As it turns out, food has been an asset for the brewery.
“The people that come in and have beers — they have snacks, and they stay longer. It’s just a better experience overall. … So many people are adding kitchens after the fact, anyway,” Emerson said.
“We jumped through all these hoops to follow all the rules, and now they’re being changed a year later. But that’s just part of business.”
Maroon Brew is now Collierville’s only brewery, and Emerson isn’t particularly worried about an influx of competition due to the updated ordinance.
“We’ve done everything we can to establish ourselves as Collierville’s brewery and the place to come get a beer,” Emerson said.
“We’re going to keep making great beer and making great food. If I keep my head down, keep putting out a good product and a good experience, then I don’t really have to worry about all that.”
Town leaders, however, are hoping the changes lead to the opening of new businesses.
Whether the revised ordinance spurs more breweries to open in Collierville remains to be seen.
But, for the first time, the town’s rules no longer create artificial barriers for craft breweries that want to serve their beer directly to the community.
