I’m happy to keep beating this drum, but I’d really rather not have to.
The owners and patrons of Ironroot Republic Distillery in Denison hardly consider the business to be a bar in the traditional sense.
There’s no loud music or dancing. The doors closed at 5:30 p.m. most nights before the pandemic. On Saturdays, they closed at 3 p.m. Most of its business came from out-of-towners booking tours who wanted to sip the “World’s Best Bourbon,” as designated by the World Whiskies Awards.
Nonetheless, Ironroot Republic Distillery was shut down late last month with the rest of the bars in the state under Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest executive order. Meanwhile, other businesses like restaurants, theme parks and bowling alleys are still open with limited occupancy. Abbott’s order required any business that gets 51% or more of its revenue from alcohol sales to close.
“We’re tourism industry businesses, we’re not bars. So they shouldn’t treat us like bars,” said Dan Garrison, owner of another tasting room, Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, a community in the Texas Hill Country.
Distillery, winery and even some restaurant owners with high alcohol sales say they are unfairly being caught in the crossfire of the statewide bar shutdown, despite running starkly different operations from those Abbott warned against when he issued his latest executive order.
“We’re all struggling to survive right now,” Garrison said. “And we’re about to lose a heck of a growing industry if the governor doesn’t do something.”
[…]
When Ironroot Republic Distillery shut down, most of the people who booked tours could no longer purchase bottles unless they were local to the area, owner Robert Likarish said. Delivering or mailing liquor to consumers isn’t allowed unless there’s a restaurant attached and the business has a mixed beverage permit.
Because it’s in a rural area, it’s been a challenge to get traffic to the distillery for curbside pickup. And even if people do come, state law only allows distilleries to sell two bottles of liquor to a customer within 30 days.
“Essentially, all the things that we’d normally do to help sell and push movement of our product are gone,” Likarish said.
Spencer Whelan, executive director of the Texas Whiskey Association, said the governor’s executive orders didn’t take into account the business models of distilleries and similar businesses.
“It was just kind of generally a wide-swath brush applied to everybody in the alcohol manufacturing industry if they had any kind of retail onsite consumption,” Whelan said.
Whelan is calling for the two-bottle limit to be waived and Sunday sales be allowed. But more than anything, he is urging Abbott to allow age-verified delivery — so that distillers can sell their products across the state.
[…]
Wineries, which often have spacious outdoor vineyards and patios where patrons can spread out, say they’re also being unfairly targeted.
“We were highly impacted by the shutdown and the pandemic just because we were forced to basically close our tasting room, which is where 90% of our sales are generated,” Lost Draw Cellars owner Andrew Sides said.
After missing out on sales in April and May — the months that typically perform best — the Fredericksburg winery reopened at the beginning of June with new rules: All tastings were moved outside, and only one group of people who came together was allowed at a time.
But then, along with bars, the winery was forced to close.
Sides said he wished that Abbott’s order had been more specific — his permit is different from bars’ permits, and people are largely taking the wine offsite to consume at home. It’s frustrating for him when other similar businesses — like a local salsa maker who allows onsite testing — can stay open.
“The whole intent for most tasting rooms and wineries is for people to come and try wine, buy it and leave,” he said.
As you know, I agree with all of this, even more so for outdoor tasting rooms. Let the places that serve food continue to serve food for pickup and delivery, and even for limited outside seating if they have it. None of that is particularly risky, and it will help a business community that really needs it. And of course, I’m all for dismantling our ridiculous system of regulations on beer and liquor. (Turns out that ridiculous anti-competitive beer distribution laws aren’t just for Texas, too.) Let the distilleries sell more bottles, and let them all sell on Sunday. It seems like some of this ought to be an easy Yes for Abbott, so I’m kind of puzzled why he’s not taken any action to help these folks. Whatever the reason, I hope they get some help before it’s too late.
“puzzled why he’s not taken any action”? The TPSA, Texas Package Store Association, aka the retailers along with the wholesalers which the 2 majors are RNDC & Southern Glazer’s have powerful lobbyists and will throw money at it to stop it.
If spirits are so essential, we should be able to make it ourselves without prosecution.
Re: If spirits are so essential, we should be able to make it ourselves without prosecution.
LIQUOR LIBERTY ANYONE? DISTILL’N-FILL-UR-OWN-BOTTLE FREEDOM!
I agree, there is a good policy argument to be made, at least for home-consumption/own needs and give-away to family and friends. That said, there are health and safety issue for hobby distillers re: methyl alcohol poisoning, which can cause blindness and even death. So, maybe there should be a training course required like for concealed weapons permits.
JUST SAY NO TO WOOD ALCOHOL
Gov’t website says even small amounts of ingested methanol are sufficient to produce acute destruction of parts of the central nervous system leading to permanent neurological dysfunction and irreversible blindness.
So, legal home delivery of quality-controlled non-moonshine may be preferable from a social policy point of view. At least it’s the certified ethanol that will be doing the liver killin’ over the long haul, shaving off fewer years from the otherwise actuarial remainder of the life span.
Depending on the Gov’t for everything is this societies’ downfall. Of course there’s some risks in doing something yourself, but if people never do anything, the knowledge is lost, which makes society a huge group of helpless people. People don’t know what to do if the grocery store doesn’t have food.
Hunting animals with a loaded weapon can cause permanent brain damage also, and hunting accidents happen, but people still hunt. Maybe the distilleries/ wineries aren’t that essential. People make beer and wine themselves, it’s just people are not able to own distilling equipment. Is that going to change soon? Doubt it. But if people are taking about drive through drinks, I would think people could stay at the house and make their own.
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