To-Go Cocktails Are Now Fully Legal in This New England State

Drive-through drinks are officially legal in Massachusetts.

The Covid pandemic was a wild time. There were so many negatives that came from that three-year stretch. However, there were a few silver linings that came out of the horrific time.

I'm talking about more outdoor dining, more work-from-home/job flexibility, and drive-through cocktails.

Drive-through cocktails or drinks are exactly what it sounds like: the ability to grab alcoholic drinks from your favorite restaurant and take them home to enjoy from the couch.

Previously, to-go cocktails were never legal in New England states. However, they are legal elsewhere. For example, when I went to New Orleans in 2019, you could not go to a coffee shop, gas station, or Walgreens without an offer of a strawberry Daquiri to-go.

During the pandemic, a lot of restaurants were hurting. They lost business on so many fronts. From literal shutdowns, less in-house business, and lack of alcohol purchases, restaurants were not getting the same revenue from their customers.

So, many states adopted temporary laws to help restaurants. Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts all legalized cocktails to go as a temporary law aimed at helping restaurants maintain sales during the hard time.

While those temporary laws expired, one state (Massachusetts) has decided to make it permanent.

When you order takeout food from your favorite restaurant, now, you can add your favorite cocktail too.

Some restaurants make a MEAN cocktail, one that you just cannot replicate from your home.

For example, I LOVE the 110 Grill's Blueberry Sangria. I would certainly order one (or three) of those to go if I were already ordering food from there.

Will other New England states make this law pertinent? Do you want this option? Or do you think this new, permanent law will cause issues (driving with an open container, more drinking and driving, more drunk drivers on the road...)?