How to Apply for an SLA Licence
Download the Tutorial PDF.
1. From the SLA homepage (www.sla.ny.gov), hover over Licenses (red arrow), and click Get a License (red circle).
2. From the Get a License page, select the type of license you are interested in applying for, i.e., retail on premises (bar, tavern, restaurant), retail off premises (grocery store, liquor store), manufacturing, or wholesale (red circles). For the purposes of this tutorial we will apply for a tavern liquor license, retail on premises (red arrow).
3. From the Retail On Premises page, you’ll see a brief description of each license type.
4. Scrolling down further, you will see those items which must be filed before filing the application with the SLA (red arrow), the requirements for holding a license (green arrow), the items that must be included in the application (yellow arrow), and the items which can be provided after filing the application but before the granting of a license (scroll down the webpage just below the cutoff on the picture).
Click the Application Wizard button (red circle) to be taken to a series of questions which will guide you to the proper application, instructions, and fee.
5. On the Application Wizard, please note the information in the yellow banner regarding use of certain web browsers.
The first two questions will determine whether you have chain restaurant status (more information by clicking the question mark circled in red), and what type of alcoholic beverages you intend to serve. For the purposes of this tutorial, we have chosen no and beer, wine, cider, and liquor.
6.The next three questions ask the location of the proposed establishment for purposes of determining the proper fee. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose no for all.
7. The next question asks about rentable rooms/apartments to determine if your business is a hotel or bed and breakfast. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose no.
8. The next question asks about your not for profit status as a membership organization to determine if your business is a club (club bars are members only, not open to the general public). For purposes of this tutorial, we chose no.
9. The next question asks whether you will host only private banquet-like events to determine if your business is a catering establishment. For purposes of this tutorial, we chose no.
10. The next two questions ask whether your business will be on a boat to determine if your business needs a vessel license, or whether it will have a capacity of 600 and act as an entertainment venue to determine whether your business is a cabaret. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose no for both.
11. The next three questions ask whether your business will not sell alcoholic beverages (i.e., it would allow only BYOB and/or provide complimentary alcoholic beverages) to determine whether your business will be a bottle club, whether you will have a full kitchen (able to prepare a menu capable of meeting the full entrée standard of a restaurant), and whether you will serve full entrées to determine whether you can be a restaurant. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose no, yes , and no.
12. The next two questions ask whether you will have a menu consisting of at least sandwiches, salads, and soups to determine if you meet the minimal food standards for a tavern license, and whether you will be open seasonally to determine if a summer or winter license is appropriate instead of a full year. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose yes and no.
13. The next question asks whether you will have more than one bar to serve customers from to determine your fee. Each additional bar carries a fee equal to the underlying license fee. For the purposes of this tutorial, we chose no.
14. The next page gives you the opportunity to review and change any answers (by clicking on the items in the navigation bar – red circles) prior to submitting those answer to the Application Wizard to determine the appropriate license and fee for your business.
15. On the final summary page, you will find the type of license the Application Wizard determined is appropriate for your business (red arrow), the option of restarting, or downloading or emailing the summary, application, and instructions (red circles), and the appropriate fee (blue arrow).
We hope you have found this tutorial helpful.
If you have any questions about applying, please call 518-474-3114, when you hear the prompt hit 1 and then 3 or email [email protected].
If you have questions about the status of your application, using your serial number, please check our website: lamp.sla.ny.gov