(FORTUNE Magazine) – Forget retailing woes. The Limited's Leslie Wexner, 54, seems more worried & these days about how to buy a drink. He and developer friend Jack Kessler have bankrolled an exclusive enclave near Columbus, Ohio, featuring a country club, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, and stately Georgian homes. The only catch: The development is in the ''dry'' village of New Albany, where alcohol cannot be served. A measure to abolish that custom -- and clear the way for the New Albany Country Club to sell liquor when it opens this spring -- was narrowly defeated in November. Normally voters would have to wait four years before reconsidering the issue. But Wexner and Kessler persuaded the Ohio legislature to put the matter back on the ballot in May. In short order, a bill wound up on the desk of Governor George Voinovich. Saying the bill would invite ''continued appeals for special consideration,'' Voinovich vetoed it -- even though Wexner was one of the largest contributors ($100,000) to his 1990 campaign. Will Wexner be left high and dry? Not likely. One way to serve alcohol legally in a dry community is to establish a microbrewery, which entitles the owner to sell liquor on the premises. The Ohio Department of Liquor Control reports the New Albany Country Club has applied for permits to do just that.