Dry Counties (Maryville, Sevierville, Lynchburg: sales, home, to buy)

[JimCorreia]

List the dry counties in Tennessee

[mbmouse]

Yes sir!
I don't know about ALL of the TN dry counties but I do know of a few here in East TN.: Jefferson County, Hamblin Co. Hawkins Co, Hancock Co. **** Co. Grainger Co. Sevier Co.
I can't think of any others at the moment....any one else???
Now some of these you can buy beer at the store and bring it home and sometimes even get a beer at a restaurant, but if you want wine or a mixed drink, nope.
Some of these dry areas will allow you to bring a bottle of wine with you into the restaurant. I know, strange, I'll never understand it, but hey, I can live with it...I live in Washington Co...Not dry

[greasy_rocker]

I don't believe Hamblen county is a dry county, you may not can buy liqueur by the drink in restaurants and such, but u can buy beer in some. Also, hambeln has several liqueur stores. To me, a dry county is a county in which NO liqueur is sold, but maybe I am wrong.

[mbmouse]

"Dry" is defined by weather you can go into a restaurant and want a glass of wine, drink, you can't get one
This is true for Hamblin and Hawkins.(I don't know for sure in other counties) Yes, you can buy beer is some convenience stores, but you can't drink it in public. Yes, in those counties, if you are seen (and someone feels like reporting you) on your front porch drinking a beer, you can be sited for "public intoxication"
Some one has told me that this "public intoxication law" is state wide, others have said it was only in "Dry" counties. Haven't found anything in print though, but was confirmed by a police officer in Greene County.

[Elrod]

You have to consider all the exceptions too. Sevier County may be dry but I don't think Gatlinburg is. There's a winery there! I don't know about Pigeon Forge or Sevierville. In a lot of these counties, the towns are wet but the surrounding counties are dry. The net effect is nil because there are virtually no restaurants outside the town limits, period.

[hiknapster]

Gatlinburg is definitely wet. Pigeon Forge well, you can get beer and wine by the glass in restaurants. I don't understand the effect statement. I don't really know what you mean.

[Elrod]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Gatlinburg is definitely wet. Pigeon Forge well, you can get beer and wine by the glass in restaurants. I don't understand the effect statement. I don't really know what you mean.

What I meant is that when a dry county's only sizable town is wet, all of the county's restaurants are going to serve alcohol. There are many counties in TN that have no more than one sizable town. And it's likely that everybody in the surrounding county goes to that town when going to a restaurant. I suppose the same might be true for packaged liquor stores too. Sevier County is a perfect example (although there are a few wet towns). If you live in, say Henry's Crossroads, which is a tiny hamlet off TN-66 in Sevier County, you wouldn't find any restaurants PERIOD until you got to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. It isn't like you're going to show up at a restaurant in Henry's Crossroads, ask for a glass of wine, and be denied...because there aren't any stores or restaurants there!

[hiknapster]

Sevier County has Gatlinburg, which is wet. Henry's Crossroad's is something that you pulled off a map. It is a fork in the road. So people in Pigeon Forge go to Gatlinburg to get a drink. Yeah. What is your point?

You said something previously about how the dry laws are pointless and started by the Baptists. I drink and am not a Baptist. So what? Apparently you have a beef with the dry laws. Okay. You are Jewish and will be a professor at Maryville College and apparently you don't like the laws. That's fine, but what is your agenda? Your previous posts were deleted about this issue. I would have like to discuss this issue.

I don't know what you are driving at. You don't like the laws?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Elrod

You have to consider all the exceptions too. Sevier County may be dry but I don't think Gatlinburg is. There's a winery there! I don't know about Pigeon Forge or Sevierville. In a lot of these counties, the towns are wet but the surrounding counties are dry. The net effect is nil because there are virtually no restaurants outside the town limits, period.

Believe it or not, having a winery in the county doesn't necessarily mean it'll be wet or dry. Don't forget that Moore County (Lynchburg) is dry, even though the largest employer is Jack Daniels. That means that even though Jack Daniels whiskey is made in Moore County, you have to drive to another county to buy it. How ridiculous is that??

But generally when one says "dry county" it refers to package stores, not restaurants and not beer. Many towns in Tennessee allow liquor by the drink but do not allow package stores.

[Elrod]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Sevier County has Gatlinburg, which is wet. Henry's Crossroad's is something that you pulled off a map. It is a fork in the road. So people in Pigeon Forge go to Gatlinburg to get a drink. Yeah. What is your point?

You said something previously about how the dry laws are pointless and started by the Baptists. I drink and am not a Baptist. So what? Apparently you have a beef with the dry laws. Okay. You are Jewish and will be a professor at Maryville College and apparently you don't like the laws. That's fine, but what is your agenda? Your previous posts were deleted about this issue. I would have like to discuss this issue.

I don't know what you are driving at. You don't like the laws?

I'm not sure what you're sensitive about. I don't have any "agenda." I admit I don't like dry laws. I simply see them as oppressive: if you don't want to drink, don't drink. Fortunately, dry laws are starting to go by the wayside in many places, often because restaurant chains won't do business in dry areas. And where I am moving will not be dry so I don't really care what neighboring counties or communities decided to do.

My point was simply that dry county laws don't really have any material effect on alcohol consumption, unless they are completely surrounded by other dry places. Southern Kentucky is such a place. You have to drive for a long time to buy booze. I did pick Henry's Crossroads from a map to make the point: it's a rural place and if you lived there and wanted a drink, you didn't have to go very far to get alcohol. Thus, the purpose of the laws - to restrict sales of alchohol and, presumably, consumption of it too - didn't seem to have much effect.