Shaken, not stirred – and in a to-go cup

While many restaurants were able to pivot to take-out and delivery during the period when stay-at-home order were in place, liquor laws (at least in the US) meant that the restaurants were not able to include drinks containing alcohol in their to-go orders. Since beverages are a real profit center for restaurants, that loss was a financial blow. Several states including Minnesota and Texas began allowing restaurants to sell cocktails to go, and now the Texas Restaurant Association is pushing for this to remain in place even after restaurants are allowed to reopen their dining rooms.

Some US states already allow some outlets to sell mixed drinks to go. For example, Louisiana allows their daiquiri shops to sell hard liquor cocktails to go, but restaurants can only sell beer and wine to go, while regular bars are prohibited from selling any beverages containing alcohol to go. In most states, however, there are strict rules prohibiting any establishment from selling pre-made drinks in a to-go container. To further complicate matters, most bars cannot sell bottles of liquor or cases of beer, and there are even more rules for establishments that brew beer or distill liquor, and all of these laws vary from state to state.

It is impossible to predict whether restaurants will be allowed to sell cocktails to go after they can reopen to the dining public, or whether they would even want to. Verifying that the recipients are all over the legal drinking age would be more of a challenge when people are picking up orders or having them delivered. My crystal ball is cloudy on the situation, but I don’t think this trend will continue for very long. What do you think about buying cocktails to go?

Photo of Claridge’s Sazerac from BBC Good Food Magazine