HARRISBURG -- Just as Pennsylvania was threatening to crawl into the 20th century -- never mind the 21st century -- by allowing beer drinkers to buy their beverage of choice at supermarket cafes, two state senators want to kill the whole idea before it has a chance to spread statewide.

At issue is a handful of liquor license applications, now under consideration by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which would allow supermarkets to serve and sell six-packs as long as the sales occur in sit-down, 30-seat cafes that are separated by a wall from the rest of the store.

"There has to be in-store dining -- seats, chairs," state LCB member P. J. Stapleton said at a wide-ranging hearing yesterday convened by the state Senate's Law and Justice Committee, chaired by state Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery. Mr. Stapleton has been serving as LCB chairman in the three weeks since the abrupt resignation of former chairman Jonathan Newman. "They have to provide food. And they also have to be able to have a separation of the two businesses," he said.

That means they'd have separate cash registers, and even, in some cases, separate cashiers, to make sure that the cashiers who ring up the beer are at least 18 years old, as required by state law.

The possible presence of under-18 cashiers is one reason Mr. Rafferty wants to prevent supermarkets from selling beer.

Soon, Mr. Rafferty said, he and Monroeville Democratic Sen. Sean Logan plan to introduce a bill that would close what, in his eyes, is a potentially harmful loophole. "I'm very concerned over the age issue, [the] possible sales to minors," he said.

"I'm looking to tighten it up" so that groceries won't be able to sell beer, but delis still would.

Another concern, said law and justice committee director Mark Meyer, is that there's nothing in the liquor code preventing supermarkets from obtaining distributors licenses. If they can set up a four-foot partition separating the grocery from the cafe allowing them to sell six-packs, he reasoned, why couldn't a grocery eventually do the same with a full distributorship, selling beer by the case?

Mr. Logan, meanwhile, has been a supporter of beer distributors and the Pennsylvania Beer Wholesalers Association, having previously supported a campaign to allow Pennsylvania distributors to open on Sundays. Last year, the wholesalers group contributed $12,500 to Mr. Logan's campaign funds, while Pittsburgh's own Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale Co. gave him $2,000.

Mr. Stapleton said the authors of the state's liquor code may not have intended for supermarkets to ever sell beer, but the way the law is now written, the LCB would have to grant the licenses, so long as the applicant meets all of the law's other requirements.

Traditionally in Pennsylvania, supermarkets haven't been able to sell wine or beer, but that has been changing under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's administration.

A few dozen supermarkets, for example, have taken advantage of the LCB's relaxed regulatory atmosphere to sell bottles of wine in adjacent sections of their stores, away from other cash registers in the main checkout lines. Giant Eagle has three such stores. And the advent of the mega-grocery, with room for specialty cafes serving soups, sandwiches and even full buffets, has forced the LCB's hand on beer sales.

While a spokesman said Giant Eagle has no plans to sell beer in its stores, a Poconos grocery, owned by Weis Markets Inc., has been selling beer since last summer, and another near Allentown plans to soon. Meanwhile, Wegmans Food Market and Acme Markets Inc. both want to sell beer in their stores, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this month.

Mr. Stapleton said there were three or four license transfer applications now pending, all of which have tavern owners and beer distributors nervous that supermarkets might soon get into the six-pack game.

The governor's spokeswoman said it's quite unlikely Mr. Rendell would support a liquor code change forbidding beer sales in supermarkets, adding that the governor thinks beer sales at supermarket cafes is inevitable.