Should to-go cocktails last beyond pandemic? States consider changing alcohol laws

Source: https://www.dispatch.com/

By Dee-Ann Durbin

Aug 26, 2020

The coronavirus is shaking up America’s liquor laws.

Ohio is one of at least 33 states plus the District of Columbia temporarily allowing cocktails to-go during the pandemic. Only two – Florida and Mississippi – allowed them on a limited basis before coronavirus struck, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Struggling restaurants say it’s a lifeline, letting them rehire bartenders, pay rent and reestablish relationships with customers. But others want states to slow down, saying the decades-old laws help ensure public safety.

Columbus police are concerned about an uptick in drunken driving, Sgt. Adam Barton told The Dispatch last month. So far, there has not been an increase in drunken driving arrests. Through June, Columbus police made roughly 600 arrests on charges of impaired driving. More than 1,000 such arrests were made in the same period in 2019.

However, it’s difficult to draw conclusions from those figures because many more people are staying home because of the pandemic.

Julia Momose closed Kumiko, her Japanese-style cocktail bar in Chicago, on March 16. The next day, Illinois allowed bars and restaurants to start selling unopened bottles of beer, wine and liquor, but mixed drinks were excluded.

Momose spent the next three months collecting petition signatures and pressing lawmakers to allow carryout cocktails. It worked. On June 17, she poured her first to-go drink: a Seaflower, made with gin, vermouth, Japanese citrus fruit and fermented chili paste. A carryout bottle, which serves two, costs $32.

Momose has been able to hire back four of her furloughed employees. A group she co-founded, Cocktails for Hope, is now helping restaurants buy glass bottles in bulk for carryout.

“Part of getting cocktails to go approved was embracing the fact that this isn’t going to fix everything, but it is going to fix something,” Momose said. “All these little things that we do will keep us open and keep our staff employed.”

U.S. liquor laws – many of which date to the end of Prohibition in 1933 – are a confusing jumble that vary by state, city and county.

Carryout cocktail regulations – which were passed starting in March – only deepen that confusion. Lawmakers approved carryout cocktails in some states; governors approved them in others. Nevada passed no statewide measure, but individual cities like Las Vegas and Reno allow them. In Pennsylvania, only restaurants and bars that lost 25% of average monthly total sales can sell cocktails to go.

Most carryout cocktail regulations require customers to buy food with their mixed drinks. Lids or seals are generally required, but some states say drinks also need to be transported in the trunk. Marbet Lewis, a founding partner at Spiritus Law in Miami who specializes in the alcohol industry, says IDs should be checked – online or in person – by restaurants and bars as well as by delivery drivers.

The laws have different sunset dates. Alabama is only allowing carryout cocktails through Sept. 15, while Colorado and Massachusetts have extended them into next year. Michigan is allowing them through 2025.

Last month, Iowa became the first state to permanently allow carryout and delivery of cocktails. In June, the Ohio House passed a bill making to-go cocktails permanent. The measure awaits a vote in the state Senate.

There is overwhelming public support for making cocktails to go permanent, says Mike Whatley, vice president of state and local affairs for the National Restaurant Association. Between 75% and 80% of respondents have said they support carryout cocktails in numerous state polls, Whatley said.

U.S. restaurants and bars have lost an estimated $165 billion since March due to lockdowns and social distancing requirements, the association said. In a May survey of 3,800 restaurants, the association found that 78% of operators who were selling alcohol to go had brought back laid-off employees, compared to 62% of operators overall.

But some are urging states not to be too hasty. Mothers Against Drunk Driving worries that permanent carryout cocktails will lead to an increase in drunken driving unless laws make clear that the drinks can’t be consumed until the buyer is in a safe location.

The U.S. government hasn’t released preliminary drunk driving data for 2020. But Jonathan Adkins, the executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said there’s no anecdotal evidence that drunk driving has spiked during the pandemic.

Even before the coronavirus hit, there was a push to modernize alcohol laws to reflect the growing popularity of food delivery, Lewis said. She thinks lawmakers will have a hard time reinstating bans on carryout cocktails once the pandemic eases.

“Once you get the genie out of the bottle and there hasn’t been a problem, how do you get it back in?” she said.