Osushi Japanese Restaurant in Ardmore to expand following BOC’s liquor license approval
LOWER MERION — Lower Merion commissioners approved relocating a liquor license into the township this week.
The vote enables Osushi Japanese Restaurant to transfer the license from Upper Providence Township to 36 Greenfield Avenue in Ardmore.
Brandon Ford, assistant township manager, said that under the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board rules, municipalities are given a quota for the number of liquor licenses they can have. To exceed that quota, the local elected body, in Lower Merion’s case, the board of commissioners, must approve it.
Anthony Beldecos, attorney for the owner, said the restaurant has been in Ardmore since 2021. It is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and employs about 20 people.
According to Beldecos, the restaurant currently seats about 86 people and is in the process of expanding into a neighboring space to add a service bar and some seats in the front.
The target opening date for the new bar area is October 2024.
“I applaud our restaurants expanding,” Commissioner Sean Whalen said. “I wish you all the luck here. I think it’s a wonderful thing, and I am fully in support.”
They will be transferring an “R” type liquor license. According to township officials, an “R” license is for restaurants that mainly provide food service to the public. Serving alcohol products is available as a secondary or supplementary function. Businesses with an “R” license cannot “sell any single, open container of alcoholic beverage for consumption outside the establishment.”
“Most of the recent liquor license transfers into Lower Merion Township have been transfers of “R” licenses to grocery stores for beer and wine sales. The Township’s most recent request was a “G” (Brewery) License transfer from Haverford Township to Lower Merion Township. A liquor license transferred from one municipality to another may not be transferred to any other location for a five-year period,” according to a staff memo to the commissioners.
Commissioner Josh Grimes said he supports the transfer but raised some concerns over the number of liquor licenses and what could happen to them after they are transferred into Lower Merion.
According to Grimes, Lower Merion has recently received many requests for license transfer from other municipalities. Most of those transfers have been for grocery stores.
Grimes said the LCB rules allow one license for every 3,000 residents.
“So in a township with our 2020 census being 63,600 residents, that would be about 21 liquor licenses,” Grimes said. “We now have 41 restaurant licenses in addition to the other licenses.”
Grimes said that once one of those licenses is transferred into the township, other than its zoning codes, Lower Merion has no say in whether the owners could move those licenses to another part of the township.
So his concern is whether they could later be transferred to a different part of the township without the commissions having much of a say. He wanted to see if in the future, Lower Merion could add a stipulation into the approval for a business to come back to the commissioners if they wish to move a license to a different part of Lower Merion.
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