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Bethel City Council Votes To Limit Fili's Pizza's Curbside Alcohol Sales

Proposition 1 on the 2019 Bethel municipal ballot asks voters if they would like to return Bethel to local option status and limit alcohol licenses to restaurants and eating places. Fili's Pizza is the only Bethel restaurant with an alcohol license and wo
Dean Swope
/
KYUK

On July 28, Bethel City Council voted to limit curbside alcohol sales at Fili’s Pizza. Customers will no longer be able to purchase alcohol curbside without an accompanying meal, and the price of the food will have to be at least 50% of the price of the alcohol in the order, which is the same rules that the state already requires for delivery. 

Several weeks ago, Fili’s had already taken some steps to limit sales, such as not selling alcohol curbside after midnight, and limiting customers to one case of beer or six bottles of wine. Fili’s Pizza co-owner Todd Perez said he had been hoping for more dialogue with council members before Tuesday’s resolution.

“I never objected to you putting restrictions on curbside,” Perez said. “I said, ‘I'd like to work with you guys to try to come up with a solution that can be, you know, a win-win for everybody.’”

Perez also suggested that wine and beer were not serious problems in Bethel, compared to hard alcohol. That was something council member Hugh Dyment couldn’t go along with.

“It really is problematic. It’s a real issue,” Dyment said. “I just had to station myself in front of a chronic inebriate with a broken wine bottle in his hand, and I had to station myself in front of them, waiting for the PD to come. And I haven’t seen a bootlegged bottle of wine in this town in 30 years, but I see them now.” 

The city will send its resolution on limited curbside alcohol sales to the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, which has the authority to enforce the new rule. In the meantime, Perez gave his word that he would begin self-imposing the new rule starting Aug. 4. 

Greg Kim was a news reporter for KYUK from 2019-2022.