In Texas, you can buy beer on Sunday starting at 10 a.m. at a grocery store, convenience store, or any other off-premise retailer, and sales run until midnight.1Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. FAQs – Section: Hours of Sale and Consumption A restaurant can also pour you a beer at 10 a.m. on Sunday, but only if you’re ordering food. A bar with no food service has to wait until noon.2State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 105.05
Sunday Beer Hours at Grocery and Convenience Stores
Off-premise retailers — grocery stores, convenience stores, and anywhere else that sells beer for you to take home — can sell from 10 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.1Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. FAQs – Section: Hours of Sale and Consumption Wine at these same stores follows the same Sunday schedule.3State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Chapter 105
There’s no earlier start for stores on Sunday morning. If you need beer before 10 a.m., buy it Saturday.
Sunday Beer Hours at Bars and Restaurants
On-premise establishments default to noon on Sunday.2State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 105.05 A bar that doesn’t serve food cannot legally sell you a beer before noon.
The exception is food service. When beer is served alongside a meal, the start time moves up to 10 a.m.2State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 105.05 That’s how Sunday brunch spots and restaurants at sporting events can pour before noon. The beer has to accompany food. You can’t order a lone pint at 10:15 a.m. at a bar that happens to keep a bag of chips behind the counter.
In either case, the Sunday cutoff is midnight.
The Saturday-Night-into-Sunday-Morning Window
Two situations let you buy beer in the early-morning hours of Sunday itself.
The first applies everywhere. Every establishment that sells beer, on-premise or off-premise, can keep selling from midnight until 1 a.m. Sunday morning. That hour is part of the Saturday sales window.2State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 105.05
The second depends on where you are. A bar or restaurant holding a retailer late hours certificate, in a qualifying city or county, can keep serving until 2 a.m. any night of the week, including Saturday into Sunday.2State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 105.05 Qualifying jurisdictions include cities and counties with a population of 800,000 or more under the most recent federal census, along with smaller jurisdictions that have adopted extended hours by local ordinance. In practice, that covers the big metro areas like Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, plus various smaller cities and unincorporated areas that have opted in.
After 1 a.m., or 2 a.m. in a late-hours jurisdiction, nothing opens again until 10 a.m. at stores or noon at bars without food service. If you’re hosting a Sunday afternoon gathering, plan around that gap.
Liquor Stores Are Closed All Day Sunday
Beer and wine are one thing. Distilled spirits are another. Liquor stores, called package stores in Texas law, cannot sell any spirits on Sundays at all. They’re also closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day, and when Christmas or New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, the closure carries into Monday.3State of Texas. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Chapter 105 On the days they’re open, their hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.1Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. FAQs – Section: Hours of Sale and Consumption
This closure does not affect beer or wine. Grocery stores can still sell beer and wine on Sunday starting at 10 a.m., and restaurants serving food can still pour beer at 10 a.m., even on holidays when liquor stores are shut.
Sunday Pickup and Delivery
Texas permanently allows bars and restaurants with mixed beverage permits to sell alcoholic beverages for pickup or delivery alongside food orders.4Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Alcohol-To-Go Is Now Permanent Law of the Land in Texas Beer and wine must be in their original containers or in tamper-proof containers sealed by the retailer. Spirits sold for delivery are limited to original single-serving containers of 375 milliliters or smaller.
The Sunday hour rules still apply. A restaurant delivering beer with a food order on Sunday can do so starting at 10 a.m. under the food-service exception. A bar without food service has to wait until noon.
Check Whether Your Area Allows Beer Sales at All
Every hour above assumes you’re in a jurisdiction that permits beer sales. Texas uses a local option system where individual cities, counties, and even precincts vote on whether to allow alcohol. As of early 2025, only 60 of Texas’s 254 counties are completely wet, three remain completely dry, and the rest fall somewhere in between, with some precincts or cities allowing sales and others not.5Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. TABC Publishes Interactive Wet/Dry Map
If you’re in an unfamiliar part of the state, the TABC publishes an interactive map showing the status of every jurisdiction and the types of beverages allowed. A partially wet county might allow beer sales in one city but not in an adjacent unincorporated area, so it’s worth checking at the local level before driving to a store that may not legally sell what you came for.