wThe state of Wisconsin is pretty lenient on what you do with alcohol. This should not surprise you as Wisconsin always has multiple cities in the ‘Top 10 drunkest places in America.’ We love our booze. But some things are a no-go like an open container. As suggested in the Eater article (See below), there is a case to made for bars to get back on their feet by selling cocktails to go. The only bar implementing something close to this right now is Jack’s American Pub with their ‘lemonade stand.’ But no one can drink after buying since Wisconsin has open-container laws. To help non-food bars, 0Wisconsin should think about adjusting these rules at the state level.

keeping to-go drinks is an integral part of reclaiming our public spaces and streets as we ease out of the lockdown https://t.co/oAryW8kC6n

— Tim Donnelly (@timdonnelly) May 5, 2020

Let’s live in a land of hypotheticals. Wisconsin agrees to loosen up the open container rules to help out the bars but enacts tougher DUI penalties (Thanks for that thought, Brian). They could also make a rule on the need for it being presented in some way. You could still prevent any open container bought in a store versus outside a bar. The bar might need some branding to make this work because the cheapest defense will be “I bought this at Jo-Cats’ when it was purchased at Pick N’ Save. There would be a ton of layers to figuring out how to make this recognizable but other bigger cities have done it in the past, therefore, why not Milwaukee?

With summer coming up and the goal to keep distancing, this would be a great way to do it. You get to support your favorite bar and get to work up a buzz for that night.

Charlie.