Sandwich shop can't get liquor license because of obscure Tennessee law

Every so often you hear of a law on the books that just doesn't make sense that makes you scratch your head and ask why.

A couple with a business in Donelson said one of those crazy laws is keeping them from selling liquor. And they're not happy about it at all. And it turns out it all boils down to who's your brother.

At the Cheba Hut restaurant in Donelson, they've got an assortment of toasted subs on the menu, like the Dank.

"It’s got pepperoni, salami, provolone cheese, garlic bread, garlic butter, and marinara sauce," shop owner Dawn Atkins said.

And you can wash your sandwich down with a big cup of Kool-Aid.

"We’ve got all three kinds, red, purple, and blue," her husband and shop co-owner, Scott, pointed out.

When the couple opened the sandwich shop earlier this year, their plan was to also serve alcohol. But right now, the only thing you can get from the bar is beer.

"We can’t get a liquor license," Scott said.

That's because of an obscure state law that says you can't get a liquor license if you have any sort of relative who works for the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission or TABC.

"That’s the most absurd law I’ve ever heard of," Scott said.

The Atkinses had no idea the law even existed when they applied for their license or passed their inspection. But then their license was denied.

Scott remembered getting the call.

"'Oh, you can't have one cause you have a family member who works there.' And we were like who?"

So Scott's parents divorced when he was young. His father went on to have another son who was not raised by Scott's father. But instead he was adopted by Scott's father's brother, or Scott's uncle, making Scott's half-brother, the ABC employee, now Scott's cousin.

"So do you get together with him on weekends, every weekend? Holidays?" we asked Scott and Dawn.

"No, (family) funerals," they responded.

"Funerals?" we asked.

"Basically," they replied.

Scott said he sees his cousin maybe once a year. He doesn't regularly talk with him and said he had no idea his cousin/half brother had worked for the agency for five years. His job title: executive administrative assistant.

"I knew he worked for the state. We just didn’t know what he did," Scott told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

But none of that seems to matter to state regulators who say there's just no way around this law designed to fight corruption.

"Tennessee has established laws to prevent conflicts of interest between the state and entities regulated by or doing business with the state," Russell Thomas, the Executive Director of the TABC, told me in a statement.

The TABC even asked the Tennessee Attorney General to weigh in and the AG's Office agreed that a biological half-brother of an ABC employee is a "family member" who cannot get a liquor license.

"It’s just silly, so silly. That’s the only way we can describe it. And we’re dumbfounded about it," Dawn Atkins said.

And it's not just the liquor license. Scott and Dawn are not even allowed to get a server's license either so they can help behind the bar when the restaurant gets busy.

"It’s very frustrating because we risk losing this business," Scott said.

The Atkinses said they've poured everything they've got into this restaurant from all of the decorations you see on the wall, including a large skateboard collection and a Led Zepplin poster that hung in Scott's bedroom when he was a teenager, to the nearly $2 million loan the couple took out to open the place.

But selling sandwiches alone, they said, is not enough to keep the doors open. They'd been counting on making at least a third more in revenue with liquor sales. And so was the Cheba Hut corporation.

"So when we bought the franchise, we had to buy three stores, we had to commit to opening three stores. So we can’t open any more stores because Cheba Hut is saying, 'No you can’t get a liquor license there’s no need to open. We are going to try to look for someone else,'" Scott said.

Faced with losing their restaurant, the Atkinses admit they discussed taking drastic measures.

"I mean, we were willing to get a divorce just to get a liquor license," Dawn shared.

But when they learned that even ending their marriage wouldn't get them a license, they were left asking the same question as their customers.

"'When are you gonna get liquor? When are you gonna get liquor?' And we’d like to know that too," Dawn said.

Cheba Hut has more than 60 locations in 15 states and Scott and Dawn say the company says theirs is the only location that's not allowed to sell liquor.

They were not aware of this law until they were about to open their restaurant because you can't apply for a liquor license until you're about to open and that's how they discovered it.

They said they'd gone on the TABC website before they started the whole process and there was no mention of this restriction. You actually have to go to the state law and pull up the entire section on alcohol to find it.

They have an attorney now and they're weighing their options. If they do have to close their Donelson location, they tell me they'll probably move and open their restaurants in Kentucky which does not have any sort of law like this.

And if you're wondering how they're selling beer, beer licenses do not come from the state, but the Metro Beer Board which does not have any sort of law like this.

We did reach out to the governor and the Tennessee Department on Economic and Community Development as both are very pro-business.

I got nothing from TDEC. But the Governor's Office told me "the General Assembly should consider reviewing this antiquated law to determine whether it is still serving the needs of Tennesseans."