Crossword Genius

Drinks emporium formerly infested with very loud insects (3-7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

off-licence

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'drinks emporium' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'formerly infested with very loud insects' is the wordplay.
'formerly' becomes 'once' (synonyms).
'infested with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'very loud' becomes 'ff' (musical abbreviation).
'insects' becomes 'lice' ('louse' can be a synonym of 'insect').
'ff'+'lice'='fflice'
'once' going around 'fflice' is 'OFF-LICENCE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for off-licence that I've seen before include "Liquor store" , "Shop selling alcohol" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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