San Rafael restaurant Shiro Kuma Sushi is -- was -- doing to-go cocktails, as so many of us are. ABC ran a sting on them, and because an employee of Grubhub, not of the restaurant, didn't check ID when delivering, ABC is threatening the restaurant with a liquor license suspension.

Grubhub faces no consequences at all.

Oh, did I say "Grubhub employee"? I meant "independent non-employee contractor."

And Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Doordash spent $200 million to buy their own legislation to keep it that way. For comparison, Bernie Sanders spent $160 million on his 2020 national campaign for President. Uber spent $200 million on Prop 22 just in California, and they're coming for other states next.

Restaurant, GrubHub driver in trouble after undercover operation:

"I guess there was an order picked up by Grubhub that contained alcohol that was actually meant for an ABC sting," said Shigeyoshi.

The California ABC confirms the order was placed by an undercover decoy and that the Grubhub delivery driver delivered the alcohol from Shiro Kuma Sushi to a minor without carding that minor. [...]

"We received a complaint that delivery services were not checking identifications and as a result alcohol deliveries were going to places where there were minors," said California ABC Spokesperson John Carr.

"We received a complaint" is ABC's usual dodge, because their supposed policy is that "they only respond to complaints", so they just manufacture those as desired. Note that they don't even pretend here that the complaint was against this restaurant: just against "delivery services" in general.

The restaurant was given the option of a one year probation or hearing to determine the validity of the claim. Shigeyoshi says he agreed to the one year probation. "If something happens within one year we face a 15-day suspension and potentially fines," said Shigeyoshi.

"For ABC to conduct a sting like that not just targeting myself but targeting other restaurants especially during the pandemic is wrong," he continued. [...]

Subsequently, he says, "We took all the alcohol off any third party delivery service." "I can't trust that every single delivery driver will ID the customer," Shigeyoshi continued. [...]

While both the delivery driver and restaurant face consequences in a California ABC delivery decoy operation, the delivery app does not.

"We don't license the delivery services if we did they would be the ones held responsible but they don't have an alcoholic beverage license to sell," said Carr.

This quote is golden:

The California ABC says it prefers education over enforcement and posted industry advisories to its website in April and June. Also that it had conference calls with delivery companies.

"Prefers education." What a fucking lie. What a bunch of fucking vampires.

ABOLISH THE ABC.

I have nothing but sympathy for this restaurant, or anyone having ABC target them for abuse for no reason. We've gone through our own share of that over the years, and I can assure you, my vitriol toward that agency is white-hot and without bound. They are monsters. They are an abusive gang of thugs, propped up by prohibitionist, fundamentalist nutjobs like The Marin Institute and MADD, and are actively hostile to everyone in the industry that they supposedly regulate.

It's as if the Egg Council had a nakedly anti-egg agenda.

All that being said, please order our cocktails!

Pictured above: the Sazerac, Black Manhattan and Betelgeuse! They are delicious, and available for pick-up and delivery from DNA Pizza, every day from 4pm to 10pm.

No ABC agents, please.