Patrons out for a drink who’d like to refill their glass without waiting for the server might have their wish come true. 

New Hampshire Republicans say they’re looking to enshrine in state law the option for restaurants and bars to operate self-serve stations that would allow patrons to pour their own alcoholic beverages.

Tim Lang, a state senator from the Lakes Region, said during Senate Bill 79’s public hearing on Wednesday that he rarely finds ideas in other states to replicate in New Hampshire. However, that’s what happened when he took a trip to Wisconsin.

“It made it easier that, while I was waiting on my chicken fingers to show up, I could just get up and get myself another beer without waiting for the waitress to come over and ask if the table wanted anything,” Lang said.

The practice would be regulated by radio frequency identification devices – in Lang’s experience, it was a special wristband – that a customer can scan to serve themselves up to a certain limit.

Through those devices, the automated system would track how many ounces each customer pours from the tap. Once they hit the limit – which Lang’s bill would set at 32 ounces of a beverage or cider up to 6% alcohol volume, or 10 ounces of wine – their device deactivates.

To purchase more, the customer must have their device reactivated by an employee. Lang said that builds in a way for liquor licensees to monitor consumption and make sure people aren’t over-serving themselves.

Technically, industry rules already permit this practice and New Hampshire has one self-pour establishment, Vine 32 Wine + Graze Bar in Bedford. Lang said he felt it was “important to let everybody know we were going to do it by law” and clarify that the state allows it.

Lang didn’t cite any specific examples of other restaurants that are interested in adopting this model, but he said the hospitality industry has expressed support for it. No one else testified on the bill on Wednesday.

“We are very tourism-driven,” Lang said. “Novelty things, for lack of a better phrase, like this, that let people enjoy themselves better while they’re up here, I think is great for our economy and great for our state.”

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.