Retail sales of beer/wine/liquor in DC

[ben]

This may or may not be exactly on topic for this board, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway since I can't find this information anywhere. Does anyone know exactly what the laws are relating to retail sales of beer, wine, and liquor in DC?

Up until recently I was under the impression that any grocery store in the District could sell beer and wine, any night of the week, until midnight. Liquor stores, as I understand it, can sell all types of alcohol until, I think, 9p.m., but not on Sundays. But then, a friend was denied the opportunity to purchase beer at 11p.m. at a grocery store (Safeway in Adams Morgan) on a Wednesday night, which confuses me. But I'm almost positive that I've personally bought beer and wine after 11p.m. at the CH Giant. Then a hotel manager in Foggy Bottom proclaimed, with certainty, that you cannot buy alcohol of any kind at any retail establishments in DC after 9p.m., and three cabbies corroborated his story, which boggles the mind.

Does anyone know what the actual law is, and if it varies by Ward (or by block, as I'm starting to think)? Any insights would be appreciated. I thought I finally had this all sorted out, and then tried to advise some friends from out of town about how to navigate the Kafka-esque system of DC alcohol regulations, and my advice resulted in a several-hour adventure that ended in frustration.

Thanks for listening.

ben

[Meekaiel]

Here you go Ben:

It's too hard (or I'm too lazy) to copy, paste and formate teh chart but here is the link where you can find this information

http://abra.dc.gov/abra/cwp/view,a,1274,q,565736.asp

http://abra.dc.gov/abra/cwp/view,a,1274,q,565715.asp is the legend for what stores fall into which class.

Basically, liquor stores are class A and grocery/convenient stores are class B

[ben]

Thanks Meekaiel. That clears it up pretty well. Maybe I only think I've bought alcohol after 10... who knows.

[Meekaiel]

No problem.