Sitka brewery and coffee shop vie for the last available restaurant liquor license

Harbor Mountain Brewing Company and Highliner Coffee both want Sitka's last available restaurant liquor license. The Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is scheduled to take up their competing applications Nov. 10, and it can grant only one.

Sitka's Assembly didn't pick a favorite. It approved both applications Sept. 22. "There were no preferences or priorities expressed by the local governing body," Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson wrote to the state's alcohol licensing office the next day.

State regulation lets the board grant the application it considers most in the public interest. It can weigh each site's safety, suitability and distance from other licensed businesses, its size, its amenities such as dining and entertainment, and any local preference. If both applications remain after that, it may hold a drawing.

The business that loses is denied without prejudice, so it can apply again.

Highliner Coffee, on Seward Street, lists hours of 5:30 am to 8 pm daily, with counter service, deli sandwiches and daily specials. It offers no entertainment. Justin Peeler owns the company.

Harbor Mountain has operated on Sawmill Creek Road for more than five years under brewery and winery licenses. Under those, it has used eight event permits a year for live music, local artists and beverage releases. Its application says those events would happen more often under a restaurant license. It lists hours of 11 am to 9 pm daily.

State law caps the number: one restaurant or eating place license for each 1,500 residents, or fraction of that, in a combined city and borough such as Sitka.

Applications for the last available license that arrive within 30 days of the first are treated as competing and considered together. Harbor Mountain applied Jan. 28 and Highliner on Feb. 17. The board tabled both at a special meeting in August.

A license granted Nov. 10 wouldn't issue until the losing applicant's window to appeal closes and the winner meets the rest of the state's requirements.