House keeps cork in wine bill - Houston Business Journal:

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Senate Bill 2523, authored by Sen. Tommt Williams R-The Woodlands, quietly cleared the Texas Senate late last montjhbut isn’t expected to advance. The session ends June 1. The bill has provejn controversial within therestaurant industry. Rep. Edmonrd Kuempel, R-Seguin, the bill’s sponsoe in the House, sufferes a massive heart attack the day the bill was slated for vote in the Housein mid-May.
Kuempelo is recuperating, but supporters don’ft expect the bill will make it out of committee in the waning days of the Jerry Lasco is ready for the bill to be The ownerof , with locations in Houston and considered the measure an inappropriate intrusiob into his business judgment and a threat to his wine-centric business model. “We sell retail as well, so our pricinv is based on retail pricing,” Lascko said. “For our business to survive, our prices have to be and we have to do alarge volume” of wine Lasco believes restaurants should have the optionj of allowing or not allowing patronsa to bring in their own wine.
Undet the bill, restaurants would have been allowedr to charge a corkage fee for opening and servingthe wine, but the consumetr could take what’s left after meal ends. The bill did not includ e beer or otheralcoholic beverages.