Officials in a Michigan suburb have denied a liquor license to a local business simply because they don’t like Taco Bell.
Other restaurants along Main Street in downtown Royal Oak have been granted permission to serve alcohol. But the city council voted 5–2 this week to deny a similar license to a new Taco Bell Cantina. The Taco Bell Cantina concept is something the fast food chain is slowly rolling out in some parts of the country, offering an extended menu and alcohol sales. The location in Royal Oak opened in January and wanted to sell frozen margaritas and beer, according to the Detroit Free Press.
City Commissioner Kyle Dubuc tells the Free Press that letting Taco Bell serve alcoholic drinks “didn’t fit with the city’s vision” and that official preferred to give licenses to “locally managed, local concepts.” But the Royal Oak Taco Bell is locally managed—as most fast food franchises are. It is owned by a third-generation Michigan company whose properties include parts of at least 80 restaurants in the northern Detroit suburbs.
Read the rest at Reason.com.
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