General Mall question regarding Food Court

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This may have been asked in the past, but if a mall has an open-air all access Food Court that sells alcohol for consumption on the premises, couldn't you be charged for carrying (OC or CCW) if you were carrying say in Belk's in the same mall, since they are all physically connected?

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I don't think so, for most food courts are leased by the individual restaurants that want to be located there. In that situation, as with the stores, they are considered individual entities. A certain area is leased and designated for the purpose of selling food and alcohol.

Now, as the seating area is a common area for the restaurants, that section could be up for debate on whether or not it is off limits. For it is conceivable that you would go to a full service restaurant that sells alcohol and get a soft drink or water, however, the restaurants sells alcohol for consumption, therefore one can say, even though you went to McDonald's in the food court, the steak 'n ale located there sells alcohol for consumption in the same area.

As far as I know, most malls do not allow for the consumption of alcohol outside of designated areas, especially in the individual leased sections for the stores. Therefore, they are not considered part of the food court. Just like we can carry concealed at the grocery store, but must open carry if we decide to do business at the bank while we are there.

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Ya know I've never even seen alcohol served in a mall food court! I would venture to assume that being anywhere but directly in the eating area would not be a problem at all. As far as where the line is drawn, if a food court restaurant served alcohol, wouldn't they be required to have a designated area? IF that were the case, then the things would be relatively obvious.

Does anyone know of any malls that do indeed have alcohol served in an open food court?

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I think one of the Steak 'n Ale's or something like that in Crabtree Mall sells alcohol. Then again, I could be mistaken.

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Southpark Mall and Carolina Place in Charlotte both serve alcohol in the Food Court.

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HOLY OPEN CARRY BATMAN! I never thought of that! So if you're CC'ing in the local Harry Peter, and want to get some cashola from the BofA, you have to expose? Hhmm, isn't that a quirk!

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LOL... Yeah, I go through it quite often with Kroger and Suntrust.