Theo's restaurant in the Rockshire Village Shopping Center on Wootton Parkway is too close to neighboring Korean Presbyterian Church to apply for a license because state law prohibits such licenses within 300 feet of religious institutions. At a public hearing last Friday in Annapolis before the Montgomery County delegates, owner Andria Kyriakides told the story of her family-owned restaurant and her intentions to keep the establishment family-friendly.

Theo's struggles are behind a late bill filed by Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville that would allow church leaders to waive the distance requirement, giving the restaurant a chance to apply for a liquor license.

Soo Lee-Cho, attorney with the Rockville firm Miller, Miller and Canby representing Theo's, said this week that the delegation did not comment extensively at last week's hearing.

A resident and neighbor of the shopping center who knows Theo's and its owners well, Stacey Haller, also testified on the restaurant's behalf, Lee-Cho said.

The county affairs subcommittee will make a recommendation on Simmons' bill, but its recommendation is non-binding, Lee-Cho said. Even if an unfavorable recommendation is made, the bill doesn't automatically die, she said.

The Montgomery delegates must approve the bill before it heads to the Senate side of the assembly 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.