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It turns out Greensboro has a little piece of the ongoing scandal over ABC board chiefs dining on liquor distributors’ dimes.

For those who need to catch up, you can find some very goods stories from the Charlotte Observer here and here.

The short version: The state of N.C. has a publicly run liquor distribution system. While a centralized state warehouse and ABC board control the flow of booze into a central state warehouse, local ABC boards buy from that warehouse and sell the liquor in their own stores. Each local ABC system has its own board and general manager.

In the fall, officials with the Charlotte ABC system got in trouble when it came to light that a liquor distributor, Diageo, paid for a big fancy dinner that involved a high-end restaurant and lots of drinks. It came up at the time that Diageo said it had taken other officials from other ABC systems out to similar (if not as expensive) shindigs.

Greensboro’s liquor manager, Katie Alley, told editorial writer Doug Clark she had not been involved recently in such meals. (Click here for that editorial).

The key word there is "recently." Receipts from Diageo that were released by the state ABC board late Thursday show Alley was the only Greensboro ABC official present for a three-person dinner at Bistro Sofia on Jan. 29, 2009. You can see that receipt on page 8 of this document. (Click here.)

Certainly, the $425 tab for the Greensboro event doesn’t rival the thousands spent in Charlotte, but it doesn’t look good. In the Charlotte cases, state ABC officials told the AP and Charlotte Observer that it breaks state law for ABC officials to accept such meals. I’m making calls on this story today.

Update: Alley dined with Diageo officials two other times, the most recently in July of 2009. There's also a receipt in there for the High Point ABC board, although for a much more modest restaurant.

The rulings I've sluced out says the Charlotte meals were potentially illegal because of their cost. The Greensboro and High Point meals problem fall within ethics guidelines as they existed at the time.