Now you can buy a bottle of wine to go - at a restaurant or supermarket

Buying a bottle of wine in Pennsylvania does not necessarily mean a trip to a State Store anymore.

As the liquor-control system creaks toward privatization, grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants may obtain permits to sell wine by the bottle.

The concept - which non-Pennsylvanians take for granted - is slowly taking hold, since Gov. Wolf signed several reforms to the liquor laws on Aug. 8.

Though supermarkets will be the likely major outlets, most are not yet selling wines. They need more time to buy and display inventory.

Restaurants and bars are among the first to set up displays of wines, most of which are bought through the Liquor Control Board's special-order system. Because of the economics, you will not see bottles of Yellow Tail or Sutter Home for sale at restaurants or bars.

Restaurants and bars receive no discount for special-order wines ordered through the state and receive a modest 10 percent discount off other wines. The LCB wine-expanded permits cost $2,000 a year and 2 percent of gross wine sales.

Who would buy a bottle of wine from a bar, given the markups? Jill Weber, who owns Jet Wine Bar at 1525 South St., replied: "People who go to a BYOB, like Pumpkin [nearby], or who say to themselves, 'I don't have something for dinner [at home].' We're selling food-friendly wines."

Jet's wine-bottle markups are about two and a half times the cost. But these are also wines that are available only by the case by special order, so they are not bottles that can be purchased singly at a State Store. To keep Jet's retail prices between $20 and $30, Weber scoured the sub-$10 wines on the special-order list. Among the initial offerings at Jet are an Italian pinot grigio from Quadri for $22 (it's $9.39 through the LCB) and Carmenere, Alto Los Romeros from Chile for $21 (a $9.29 bottle). Weber does not offer the retail wines on her wine list at Jet or at Rex1516, her restaurant across the street.

At Hawthornes, a restaurant and takeout shop in the city's Bella Vista neighborhood that specializes in beer, dozens of wines went out last week on a table displayed near the beer cases.

Rather than acting as a liquor store, "we're offering off-the-beaten-path styles," said owner Chris Fetfatzes. "We buy it to sell it, and we want to get the Sunday champagne drinker."

Licensees can sell the equivalent of three liters of wine in every transaction. They can sell between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and during limited hours on Sundays.

Supermarkets had been eager to get into the wine business, just as several years ago they began obtaining restaurant licenses for the right to sell two six-packs of beer per transaction. Of the 47 so-called wine-expanded permits granted in Philadelphia and its bordering counties by Sept. 26, 33 were presumably well-heeled supermarkets and beer distributors.

Merchants seem to want to sell wine to serve their customers. (A bill pending in the state House would also allow the sale of spirits through a separate permit.)

Pennsylvania winemakers also can sell wine directly to grocery stores and others with the new license.

The restaurants receiving wine-expanded permits make up a seemingly random collection that besides Hawthornes and Jet includes the Society Hill destination Bistro Romano, the Italian upstart Gran Caffe L'Aquila in Rittenhouse (which starts selling Friday), and the beer-centric West Philadelphia bars Local 44 and Clarkville.

Owner Leigh Maida said Local 44 would start its wine sales Nov. 1 in its beer bottle shop. Clarkville will offer draft wine to go in growlers - a spin on beer culture.

Asked whether there was money in wine, as opposed to beer, Maida said: "There's not a lot of money in any of it. We keep our markups more reasonable than a lot of places because we truly do come at beer (and now wine) from a place of enthusiasm that we get to share what we love with our guests. We rely on guest frequency instead of high prices. We aim to build community that way."

The following establishments have been approved by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to sell wine by the bottle, as of Sept. 26, 2016.

Philadelphia

Thriftway in Port Richmond

Acme Markets on Red Lion Road in Northeast Philadelphia and Johnston Street in South Philadelphia

Bistro Romano in Society Hill

Hawthornes in South Philadelphia

Jet Wine Bar in Graduate Hospital

Grant Avenue Takeout in Northeast Philadelphia

Lee's Beer in North Philadelphia

Local 44 in West Philadelphia

Clarkville in West Philadelphia

T.D. Beer in North Philadelphia

The Bottle Shop in South Philadelphia

Gran Caffe L'Aquila in Center City

Beer Harbor in Northeast Philadelphia

Bucks County

Acme in Doylestown

ShopRite stores in Bensalem and Fairless Hills

Giant Food in New Hope and Doylestown

Weis Market in Doylestown

Trenton Road Takeout in Fallsington

Bailey's Bar & Grille in Levittown

Chester County

2017 D&J in Coatesville

Acme Markets in Wayne

Giant Food in Exton

The Beer Store in Malvern

Kennett Square Inn in Kennett Square

Delaware County

Acme Markets in Glen Mills and Media

Giant Food in Havertown

Brookhaven Foods in Brookhaven

Teresa's Next Door in Wayne

320 Market Cafe in Media

Fresh Grocer in Upper Darby

Montgomery County

Iron Abbey in Horsham

Acme Market in Flourtown

Giant Food in Flourtown, North Wales, Willow Grove, and Wynnewood

Below Deck in Conshohocken

Weis Markets in Conshohocken, Huntingdon Valley, Pennsburg, and Lansdale

CJ's Doghouse in Kulpsville