Pine Grove Inn's 'Legal Beverages' sign is a mystery

Posted by Howard Owens on January 23, 2009 - 6:13pm
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Pine Grove Inn Legal BeveragesWhenever I drive down Route 5 into Batavia, I pass by the Pine Grove Inn, which always looks like an inviting roadside bar and grill.

But I've long been perplexed by the "Legal Beverages" on the sign.

I stopped in for a beer late this afternoon and chatted with owner Michele Klees.

She's friendly and quite willing to talk, but she doesn't know much about the sign either. It was there when she bought the place 10 years ago.

As far as she knows, the location has always been a bar, but she's heard that long, long ago, it was a filling station.

I'm far from the first person to stop and take a picture of the sign, she said. It generates a lot of curiosity from Route 5 travelers, but she's never been able to find anybody who can explain the history of it.

Apparently, such notification was required by the state of New York, but I didn't turn up any history in a quick Google search.

Anybody know anything about the sign?

One other curiosity about the Pine Grove Inn -- there are darn few pine trees around the location.  A friend of Michele's told me there was once a grove of pines there, but disease took all but one of them.

The bar, beautifully handcrafted by the man mentioned above and another friend of Michele's, is made of a thick piece of pine. I think I'll stop in there again some time. It was a friendly visit.

Posted by Gabor Deutsch on January 23, 2009 - 6:23pm
Thats old school dude. Bar and grill was food and non-alcohol, or at least alcohol friendly in the day time. Or simply they had no liqour liscence. Obviously you didnt dine ?
Posted by C. M. Barons on January 23, 2009 - 7:45pm
"Legal beverages" is indeed "old school," hearkens back to the Prohibition era when most alcoholic beverages were illegal. The Eighteenth Amendment, the National Prohibition Act, or the Volstead Act was in effect from 1919 - 1933. Alcohol regulation and taxation had been governed by the Treasury Department aka Bureau of Internal Revenue (revenuers). When sales were rendered illegal by the Volstead Act, the Justice Department and FBI took over.
With the repeal of the 18th Amendment, it was back in the Treasury Dept's lap, Alcohol Tax Unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In 1942, firearms were added the bureau's oversight. Internal Revenue was re-organized in 1950. The Internal Revenue Service was born, and alcohol, firearms and, additionally, tobacco were under the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division. The familiar ATF was coined in 1968.
Basically, a legal beverage has had a tax paid. A bootleg or illegal beverage has no tax paid. Many establishments, post-Prohibition, posted signs to clarify that beverages served were "legal." There was some confusion at the time: liquor laws were not federal- but jurisdictional. Localities such as Pike, New York still prohibit liquor sales. Chili, New York was a "dry town" for many years. Signs such as the Pine Grove Inn example are anachronisms.
Posted by Howard Owens on January 23, 2009 - 8:11pm
I get all the prohibition history, but this sign doesn't date back that far. If it dates back any further than the 1960s, I would be surprised.

At the time it was put up, was such a notice required?
Posted by Dave Olsen on January 24, 2009 - 10:45am
I always thought that those signs meant the bar had a license to sell all legal beverages instead of just beer and wine. I enjoyed the history lesson though, thanks, C.M.
Posted by Robert Drewinski on January 24, 2009 - 11:05am
I have not been in there in a few years, looks like its a good time to stop in there this weekend.
Posted by C. M. Barons on January 24, 2009 - 5:59pm
I agree; the sign is not vintage. I say it "hearkens" to that period: an anachronism. The owners may have retained the phrase from earlier versions.
Posted by Frank Giuliano on January 24, 2009 - 7:05pm
In my teens in the early 50's the Pinegrove Inn had the best fish frys in the area. It was a very small roadside resturant and very popular.