Dry counties in Kansas have nearly disappeared. After Wallace County voters approved liquor by the drink in November 2025 by roughly 65%, news coverage identified Wallace as the last fully dry county in the state, meaning Kansas may now have zero counties that ban on-premises alcohol sales outright. What remains, and what still catches people off guard, is the middle tier: more than half of Kansas’s 105 counties require any business serving drinks to earn at least 30% of its receipts from food.
The Three Categories Kansas Counties Choose From
Under K.S.A. 41-2646, every Kansas county sits in one of three buckets set by local voters.1Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 41-2646 – Sale of Liquor by the Drink in Public Places; Election to Prohibit or Permit The category controls what kind of business can pour a drink for on-site consumption.
Dry. No establishment may sell alcoholic liquor by the individual drink. Bars and restaurants cannot get an on-premises license no matter how much food they serve.
Restricted. Drinking establishments can serve alcohol, but at least 30% of the business’s gross receipts must come from food. In practice, every place pouring drinks has to function as a restaurant, and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control audits for compliance.2Kansas Statutes. Kansas Statutes 41-2642 – Drinking Establishment License; Rights of Licensee
Wet. Liquor by the drink is allowed with no food-sales threshold. Bars, taverns, and nightclubs can operate alongside restaurants.
All three categories apply only to on-premises consumption. Package sales through liquor stores follow separate licensing rules.
Where Kansas Counties Stand Now
For years, three counties were fully dry: Haskell, Stanton, and Wallace. Haskell and Stanton moved off that list before Wallace did, and the November 2025 Wallace vote closed out what news coverage described as the state’s last dry holdout.
Before that final round of changes, roughly 54 counties operated under the 30% food requirement, with the balance fully wet. The most populous counties, including Johnson, Sedgwick, and Douglas, have long been wet with no food requirement.
These numbers shift with any general election, so the authoritative reference is the wet-and-dry county map maintained by the Department of Revenue’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. If you are planning to open a business or you just want to know the rules where you live, check the ABC’s current map or contact the division directly rather than trusting a static list.
How a Kansas County Changes Its Status
A county can move between dry, restricted, and wet through a vote at a state general election. There are two ways to trigger one under K.S.A. 41-2646: the county commission passes a resolution putting the question on the ballot, or citizens file a petition.1Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 41-2646 – Sale of Liquor by the Drink in Public Places; Election to Prohibit or Permit
A citizen petition needs signatures from qualified voters equal to at least 10% of the votes cast for secretary of state at the most recent general election where that office appeared on the ballot. The county election officer verifies the signatures, and the question then goes on the next state general election ballot. Voters pick one of the three options, a simple majority carries, and once the board of canvassers certifies the result, the county election officer notifies the ABC director to update licensing eligibility.
The vote can go either direction. A wet county can vote itself back to restricted or dry, though that has become increasingly rare.
Grocery and Convenience Store Beer Isn’t Part of This
Kansas draws a legal line between “alcoholic liquor” and “cereal malt beverage,” and the wet/dry/restricted framework governs the first category, not the second. A cereal malt beverage is any fermented, undistilled malt drink at or below 3.2% alcohol by weight.3Legal Information Institute (LII). Kansas Admin Regs 14-15-1 – Definitions A 2019 law raised the ceiling for cereal malt beverage retailers to 6.0% alcohol by volume, which is why grocery and convenience stores in Kansas can now carry most mainstream beers. That licensing runs on its own track, so cereal malt beverage sales may be available in places where full liquor-by-the-drink service is still restricted.
Temporary Event Permits and Dry Counties
If you are trying to serve alcohol at an event in a formerly dry county, the constitutional restriction matters even after a vote. Kansas can issue temporary on-premises permits only for events in wet counties, a limit written into the Kansas Constitution.4Kansas Department of Revenue. Temporary Permit Counties operating under the 30% food-sales rule do qualify, because they have authorized some form of liquor-by-the-drink sales; a fully dry county does not.
Why Kansas Ended Up This Way
Kansas was the first state to write prohibition into its constitution, in 1880, and it did not fully repeal statewide prohibition until 1948, the longest run of any state. Even that repeal only legalized package liquor stores. A constitutional ban on the “open saloon” kept Kansans from legally ordering a cocktail at a restaurant until 1986, when voters approved an amendment allowing liquor by the individual drink in public places, with each county required to opt in separately. The Kansas Liquor Control Act, starting at K.S.A. 41-101, built out the county-option framework, and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control at the Department of Revenue administers it.5Kansas Legislative Research Department. Liquor Laws That history is why a twenty-minute drive across a county line in Kansas can still take you from an unrestricted bar to a place where every drink comes with a food minimum.