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DrinkLaws

Texas

Texas Sunday alcohol laws

Sunday is the day Texas alcohol law is at its least intuitive — three different rules apply before noon alone.

Beer and wine: yes, from 10:00 a.m. to take home, or at a bar with food until noon. Liquor in a sealed bottle: no, not at all. Package stores are closed every Sunday in Texas. Cocktails at a bar or restaurant are fine.

A Texas Sunday, hour by hour

  1. 12:00 – 1:00 a.m.

    Saturday night, still running

    Bars and stores may keep selling beer, wine, and mixed drinks until 1 a.m. — legally Sunday, but the tail of Saturday's window. Extended-hours venues run to 2 a.m.

  2. 1:00 – 10:00 a.m.

    Nothing is sold

    The one genuinely dry stretch of the Texas week. No beer, no wine, no spirits, at any channel.

  3. 10:00 a.m. – noon

    Beer and wine, with a catch

    Stores may sell beer and wine to take home. Bars and restaurants may serve beer, wine, and mixed drinks only alongside food. Package stores stay shut.

  4. Noon – midnight

    Normal service, minus package stores

    The food requirement lifts. Beer, wine, and mixed drinks flow normally. Package stores remain closed all day — no sealed spirits anywhere.

Why 10 a.m. and not noon

Since September 2021, retail dealers may sell beer and wine to go starting at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. The previous start time was noon, and a large share of the guides still online give the old time. H.B. 1518 also let restaurants serve from 10:00 a.m. with food. The change is recent enough that store staff sometimes give the old time too.

The package store closure

§ 105.01 permits liquor sales Monday through Saturday only. There is no exception for a Sunday holiday, no exception for a Sunday before a Monday holiday, and no local option to opt out — a county cannot vote its package stores open on Sunday. The one Sunday-adjacent wrinkle runs the other way: when Christmas or New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, stores are also closed the following Monday.

The food requirement, precisely

Between 10:00 a.m. and noon, § 105.03 and § 105.05 allow on-premise service only where food is being served. The statute governs the venue’s food service, not whether you personally order a meal — but in practice venues enforce it by requiring an order, because the permit is theirs to lose.

Common questions

Can you buy alcohol on Sunday in Texas?
Beer and wine, yes — from 10 a.m. to take home, and at bars and restaurants from 10 a.m. with food or noon without. Liquor in sealed bottles, no: package stores are closed every Sunday in Texas.
What time can you buy beer on Sunday in Texas?
From 10 a.m. if you are taking it home. This changed in September 2021 — it used to be noon, and many older guides still say so.
Why are liquor stores closed on Sunday in Texas?
Section 105.01 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code simply prohibits package store sales on Sunday. It is a blue law dating to the 1935 code, retained through every subsequent revision. Efforts to repeal it have repeatedly failed in the Legislature.
Do I have to order food to drink on Sunday in Texas?
Only between 10 a.m. and noon. During that window a bar or restaurant may serve alcohol only alongside food service. From noon onward there is no food requirement.
Can restaurants serve mimosas on Sunday morning in Texas?
Yes, from 10 a.m., as long as food service accompanies the drink. That is exactly the situation the food requirement was written for.
Is Texas ever going to allow Sunday liquor sales?
Bills to repeal the Sunday package store closure are filed most sessions and have not passed. The 2021 session moved the Sunday beer and wine start earlier but left the package store closure untouched.

Sources

Last verified . Statutory text current as of January 1, 2026. How we check this.