Family flees politically unstable country, resettles in America with extended family that had previously left. Struggles for a time, then establishes a family-run restaurant. Becomes successful with eatery, well liked by members of the community, has a good run at a good location for 21 years.

That's where the dream stops and reality kicks in.

The story continues: Landlord likes restaurant, but wants it to offer a full bar. Family opts to move to a new location rather than serve hard liquor at their family-oriented restaurant. Sets up in a shopping center where they can't get a liquor license, with assurances from longtime customers that they'd drink their wine at home before coming to dinner.

But the story doesn't have such a happy ending.

At lunch hours, Theo's Greek restaurant in the Rockville's Rockshire Village Shopping Center on Wootton Parkway makes a killing. Dinner hours are slower, and Friday evenings are sometimes dead, as patrons choose to dine where they can drink alcohol.

Situated at the end of a brick shopping center near the Giant grocery store, the restaurant is too close to the Korean Presbyterian Church to be granted a liquor license. State law prohibits such licenses within 300 feet of religious institutions.

Owners Andria Kyriakides and her sister, Rosa Martinos, greet well-known customers as they stand outside the entrance, enticing them to dinner with displays of the evening specials.

"Hey girls, did you get your license yet?" the regulars ask.

On hearing no, they turn on their heels.

The sight breaks Kyriakides' heart, she said last Friday before lunch, sitting at a golden brown wooden table inside the pale yellow restaurant.

"I didn't think it will be a big deal," she said. "It is a big deal because we are suffering."

Kyriakides said while the restaurant is pulling the same or better profits than this time last year, it is much larger than the former space on Seven Locks Road and has twice the operating expenses.

Neighbors along Wootton Parkway seem to like the place, with about 280 families having signed a petition for a liquor license on the restaurant's behalf. More recently e-mailed the mayor and City Council of Rockville for help on the issue.

Now a late-filed bill in the Maryland General Assembly may be just what Kyriakides needs. Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville, answering a request made by the restaurant's attorney, said this week his bill would allow church leaders to waive the distance requirement.

Montgomery County delegates voted to suspend the rules of when local bills are filed to allow for a public hearing on whether Theo's restaurant in the Rockshire Village Shopping Center on Wootton Parkway should be able to apply for a liquor license.

The hearing is set for 9 a.m. Friday at the Montgomery County delegation room in the Lowe Office Building in Annapolis.

"The bill does not to attempt to limit the 300-foot requirement. The bill simply says if the board of trustees or directors waives the requirement, then the application can go to the next step and be considered on its merits," Simmons said from his Annapolis office. "Simply because church waives requirement, doesn't mean get the license, but only says you can apply for one."

Exceptions and rules

The Rev. Heemoon Youn of the Korean Presbyterian Church, next to Theo's, said he does not oppose the restaurant having a liquor license "as long as they abide by the law."

Youn said he has eaten several times at the restaurant and appreciates its comfortable, family setting and good food. If they get a license, owners will just have to be careful of teenagers from nearby Thomas S. Wootton High School interested in being served alcohol, he said.

He suggested only serving wine as a way to deter youngsters from trying to drink beer there.

Simmons said liquor laws are flexed regularly to allow for business to flourish in an area where it might not have been allowed. Case in point was action the state legislators took recently to allow a series of restaurants to get licenses along Columbia Pike as the county seeks to encourage companies to locate in that area, he said. His current bill would only affect Rockville, although he said he'd like more uniformity in liquor laws.

"In fairness to the small business, from everything that I can see, they are very sincere, hardworking contributors to the community," Simmons said of Theo's owners.

Dennis Theoharis, executive director of Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners, said two exemptions of the distance requirement already exist in the county. One affects establishments in or within 500 feet of a central business district zone, or those in the Takoma Park transit impact area. The central business district exemption was prompted by the fate of one Bethesda restaurant, he said.

Simmons' bill would have to be approved by the Montgomery delegates before heading to the state Senate side of the delegation for approval. If the local senators favor it, the bill then would be introduced to the full assembly and assigned to the Ways and Means Committee, where liquor license bills are handled.

Upon hearing of the bill's existence on Tuesday, Kyriakides said she appreciated Simmons' efforts to help the restaurant get a license.

"We definitely need it in order for this restaurant to go forward," she said.