Cooking With Style and Tied House Laws

The crew over at Jillie Willies creates happy, upbeat, colorful kitchen wear. If legal regulations and government mandates have trends, I say they have a new one: it’s called Cooking With Style. This is a trend that seats itself into your heart, and hopefully leads you to a lifetime of stylish meals with folks you love to share your home with. From foodies to mommies to daddies and, well, everyone else, Jillie Willies makes top quality, eye-popping aprons and headbands. They’re perfect for any occasion: birthday gifts, tailgate parties, family dinners, fundraisers for a great cause, or just looking fabulous while devouring tasty treats!

With all of that in mind, and as another Bottle Shocked year of beer is upon us, I thought it would be a great time to speak about mildly technical legalese. I know that Michelle Le Cloux of Jillie Willies watches the law, so let’s tackle something that’s been around since the birth of the American Republic – comprehensive tied house regulations. For those of you who are not intimately aware with the term, “tied house laws” are the various social, legal, and regulatory restrictions on business connections between manufacturers and alcoholic beverage retailers. In other words, think of tied house laws as the government regulations that prevent a brewery from telling a bar or restaurant that it must serve a certain amount of barrels of beer per week to earn rebates. Did it surprise you to learn that such a thing existed? Until we had this conversation, it sure surprised me.

The extreme example came during Prohibition in the 1920s with “tied-house operators,” what we would now call retailers. These were brands or companies that connected directly with a consumer by opening (seemingly endless offerings) of their own boutiques and establishments to sell only their brand of product directly to the public.

During Prohibition, this was seen as a huge source of revenue for the underground alcohol market; so, much like the Gorog graduation of the 1950s, the government struck hard and cut ties to slash highways to the apron strings holding illegal goods on the black market. The result? Tied house laws.

The consequence? In the years following Prohibition, the remnants of these laws trickled down from state to federal; leading to the current system we have nationally today. Those remnants include a sprinkling of dictations and decrees from the government that prevent agents of manufacturers from running the hands of retailers. To create a level playing field upon which both types of organizations deal, the laws prevent one from trying to manipulate the other.

So, what does all of this mean to you as you look to Jillie Willies style for your next party? As it pertains to the social and recreational delights of craft beer, the guidelines are as follows: While this is not an exacting depiction of the entire realm of regulations and restrictions, it certainly shows how government control and commercial creativity can live in the same realm as cooking from home. So, with that in mind – and with a focus on being simply stylish – I suggest hosting a colorful, quaint, craft beer tasting party in your own home using Jillie Willies!