Friends:
You’ve been buying boatloads of our “just-add-rum” mocktails, and we can’t thank you enough for it. But you know what would be even better, both for you and for us? A rum-included option, especially since our 600-odd state-run liquor stores have been closed in their entirety for three weeks, with no end in sight.
As you may know, under Pennsylvania law, we cannot sell spirits or cocktails to go. Is that a well-intentioned policy? Probably. But it’s hardly a rational one, seeing as we can sell you both beer and wine to go (the latter with a special permit). In fact, we can sell you a *gallon and a half* of 12% imperial stout, containing 23 oz. of pure ethanol, but not a cocktail with the legal-standard serving of 1.5 oz. of 80-proof spirit, containing 0.8 oz. ethanol. To use a legal phrase, the distinction is arbitrary and capricious.
Why do we point this out to you? Well, our industry is in unprecedented straits. While our restaurant group has worked hard to adapt its model and managed to keep payroll at approximately three-fourths of pre-closure level, many of our cocktail-forward peers have closed and laid off their entire staffs. Yet each of us is sitting on inventories of thousands of dollars of spirits. Each of us also employs talented and conscientious professionals who are trained and experienced in the responsible service of alcohol, including through the state’s own RAMP program.
There is an obvious win-win solution to these issues, and it is allowing Pennsylvania licensees to serve cocktails and even spirits to-go - at a minimum during the pendency of state stores’ closure, but more effectively, through year’s end. This would restore the flow of spirits to our state’s millions of responsible imbibers, while providing employment to thousands of hospitality workers and giving their employers a fighting shot at survival, post-shutdown.
We’re not alone in thinking this way. In fact, our good friend Lew Byrson, the distinguished Pennsylvania-based spirits writer, has drafted a petition to Governor Tom Wolf, seeking this same modest but impactful change. Please check it out at the link here, and do consider signing it.
Mahalo, all.
Adam Henry
