Ark. Code Ann. § 3-9-301 (2026)

As used in this subchapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Director” means the Director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division;
2. “Guest” means a person who orders and is served a meal inside a restaurant during regular hours;
3. 1. “License” means a license to sell wine in a restaurant or cafe.
   2. An annual fee of three hundred dollars ($300) shall be paid for each license or renewal of a license.
   3. All moneys derived from the annual fees shall be deposited into the State Treasury as general revenues to the credit of the State Apportionment Fund, to be allocated and transferred to the various funds, fund accounts, and accounts participating in general revenues in the respective proportions to each as provided by law, and to be used for the respective purposes set forth in the Revenue Stabilization Law, § 19-5-101 et seq.;
4. “Meal” means food commonly ordered at various hours of the day;
5. “Person” means any person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation;
6. 1. “Restaurant” or “cafe” means a place of business that is regularly used to serve a meal to a guest for compensation and has a suitable kitchen facility to serve an entire menu approved by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division.
   2. The menu shall contain a selection of food and shall not be limited to sandwiches or salads.
   3. The kitchen shall:
      1. Have adequate refrigeration to preserve the food on the menu;
      2. Be kept in a sanitary condition; and
      3. Comply with the rules of the Department of Health.
   4. 1. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is authorized and directed to establish appropriate rules defining “established eating places” to the extent that licenses granted under the provisions of this subchapter shall be issued only to those business establishments whose principal business is serving food for consumption on the premises.
      2. However, a drive-in shall not be classified as an established eating place; and
7. “Wine” or “wines” means any port wine, sherry wine, vermouth wine, or other wines, the alcoholic content of which does not exceed twenty-one percent (21%), regardless of whether the wines are manufactured within or without the State of Arkansas.

History. Acts 1965, No. 120, § 1; 1971, No. 441, § 2; 1971, No. 585, § 12; A.S.A. 1947, § 48-626; Acts 2005, No. 1247, § 1; 2009, No. 294, § 24; 2013, No. 1100, §§ 3, 4; 2019, No. 315, §§ 105, 106.

Amendments. The 2005 amendment substituted “twenty-one percent (21%)” for “fourteen percent (14%)” in (2).

The 2009 amendment redesignated (3), deleted “as defined herein” following “cafe” in (3)(A), substituted “three hundred dollars ($300)” for “fifty dollars ($50.00)” in (3)(B), and made minor stylistic changes.

The 2013 amendment redesignated former (4)(A) as (6)(A) and rewrote it; inserted present (2), (4), (6)(B), and (6)(C) and redesignated the remaining subdivisions accordingly; and substituted “Alcoholic Beverage Control Board” for “board” in (6)(D)(i).

The 2019 amendment substituted “rules” for “regulations” in (6)(C)(iii); and deleted “and regulations” following “rules” in (6)(D)(i).