2428                                      LAWS OF MARYLAND                            Ch. 687

a prerequisite for each renewal of a license issued under
this subsection, the owner must attest in a sworn
statement that the gross receipts from food sales in the
restaurant or hotel for the twelve—month period
immediately preceding the application for renewal have
been in excess of two times the gross receipts from the
sale of alcoholic beverages. The board of license
commissioners shall by rule and regulation provide for
periodic inspection of the premises and for audits to
determine the ratio of gross receipts from the sale of
food to gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic
beverages. Any rules and regulations adopted by the
board as aforesaid shall include a requirement of (1) at
least monthly physical inspections of the premises during
the initial license year of any licensee and (2) the
submission by the licensee to the board, during the
initial license year aforesaid, of monthly statements
showing gross receipts from the sale of food and gross
receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages for the
immediately preceding month. In the event that a
licensee hereunder, during the initial license year,
shall fail to maintain gross receipts from the sale of
food at least twice those from the sale of alcoholic
beverages for a period of three consecutive months or
after the initial license year for each license or
calendar year, the board, in its discretion, may revoke
the license. The board shall have the authority to
require any licensee to provide such supporting data as
it, in its discretion, deems necessary in order to
establish that the requirements of this section relating
to the ratio of gross receipts from the sale of food to
those from the sale of alcoholic beverages have been met.
For the purposes of this section the term "dining area"
shall be defined as the area occupied by patrons for the
purpose of the consumption of food, and may include
service in a room of a registered guest in a hotel if the
hotel meets the minimum requirements as set forth in § 19
(o) [(p)] of this article, and may include also a
cocktail area where food need not be served provided
there is no separate outdoor entrance to the cocktail
area. A license issued under this subsection shall
authorize the holder thereof to keep for sale and sell
alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises only,
and no alcoholic beverages shall be served to patrons or
consumed at any bar, counter without seats, or other room
but in the dining area as above defined, and provided
further that the seats provided in such cocktail area may
not exceed 25 percent of the seats normally available for
the general public in the "dining area," including the
cocktail area portion thereof, but excluding special
banquet and private party facilities. No signs, visible
from the exterior of the building, advertising the sale
of alcoholic beverages shall be permitted in connection
with any restaurant or hotel holding a license issued
hereunder except the display of the menu then in use by
the licensee. The annual license fee for such a license
shall be $2,000.]