Yeah, alcohol licenses are typically divided up into served vs sealed alcohol. And the two are often mutually exclusive, because one usually prohibits the sale of the other. Sealed licenses typically prohibit on-site consumption of liquor, while an open license will require it.

So a liquor store with a sealed liquor license can sell you bottles of hard liquor, but you can’t consume them on the premises because that would be an open container. And their liquor license only allows for sealed bottles on the property. And inversely, a bar with an open liquor license will uncap bottles of beer before handing them to you, because their liquor license doesn’t allow them to sell sealed containers, and also requires that all the alcohol they sell remains on the property.

I’d be interested to see what kind of licensing allows for both sealed and open containers. It’s likely some sort of new anti-addiction initiative, similar to needle swaps/safe injection sites for heroin users. Or they only have the open liquor license, so they’re requiring that all liquor sold be consumed on-site. Thus the “but you can’t leave” part of the meme.