As of Monday, March 1, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has allowed restaurants, breweries and other food service businesses to sell alcohol until midnight, which is two hours later than the previous 10 p.m. cutoff, according to WUSA.
“What this change means is that we can serve guests in the dining room a bit later,” said Scott Shaw of Alexandria Restaurant Partners. “It’s a bit hard to seat somebody at 9:30 p.m. and take away their glass of wine at 10 p.m.” He estimated the extra two hours would boost the bottom line by 10%-15%.
According to WHSV, the state also eased restrictions on entertainment venues, which can now have up to 250 people indoors (or 30% capacity) and up to 1,000 people outdoors (or 30% capacity).