Just so nobody will think I'm just a pretty face posting fluff ...

I think there may be a difference between folks awaiting a license in a wet area who give booze away rather than sell it while waiting for their ticket and the current situation. The question here is the nature of the area, not whether a license has yet been issued. Thus, you'll need to take a look at section 101.31 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code. It provides that, with certain apparently non-applicable exceptions (generally dealing with vintners), "no person in a dry area may manufacture, brew, sell, import into the state, export from the state, transport, distribute, warehouse, store, solicit or take orders for, or possess with intent to sell an alcoholic beverage." I haven't done much looking to see whether there's a good legislative intent argument that "distribute" is meant to be a functional equivalent of "sell," but a belt-and-suspenders approach would say you shouldn't bet the farm on it. 'Cause if the hapless distributor is wrong, it's a class B misdemeanor, enhanceable up to a state jail felony. See id. at (b), (c). With that said, I suppose if your restauranteur also grows her own grapes to make the bubbly (I'm told that for a beverage to actually be "Champagne," it has to come from a particular region in France), she might qualify for one of the exceptions.