LINCOLN CHINNERY

It’s time to be better than our demons

Time for future-proof planning

Iam writing this while sitting in a selfimposed quarantine. On December 19, my NYC Covid-19 Alert app informed me that I had come into close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. There was a part of me that wanted to ignore it and go about my life. Fortunately, my mother raised me to be better than my demons. Whatever plans my partner and I had for Christmas and NYE were put on amber, suspended until we received two negative tests.

We got tested (PCR) immediately, ordered provisions, and went into lockdown. Ahead of us, two weeks with no human contact, plenty of food (and yes, whiskey) but no running out to the store, no going into the office, and no social distance drinking on our roof deck. You might think “What does this have to do with whiskey?”

The spirits industry is currently suffering from a lack of human contact. The simple ability to walk into a bar to have a drink, doing a distillery tour with friends or introducing a new whiskey to enthusiasts or family is gone. Then there is the other side of the equation, the people who make, sell, and distribute the russert-colored goodness we call whiskey. Production has not completely stopped but it has been cut down considerably. Operations and logistics have morphed into a hybrid child of CDC guidelines and attempts to GSD.

Their jobs, their very lives are in danger of being wiped away like a finger snap from a Marvel super-villain because of Covid.

With one negative test and five days into my quarantine I realized how lucky I was to be working, to have healthcare, and have people in my life that want to (and know how to) do Zoom meetings. Others are not so lucky; there are countless bartenders, reps and workers who are out of a job and out of luck without healthcare. At this point I realize that the industry cannot survive on corporate handouts or government bailouts – it needs future-proof planning from top to bottom in case this happens again. It needs all of us to be more than enthusiasts. The industry needs us to be supporters. Because if you think this is the last pandemic to hit the industry, and the world, then you must have slept through World History. Day six I make a personal promise to Venmo money to a different bartender/industry friend who is out of work because of the pandemic.

Rebuilding and recovery will take beyond the box thinking, not only with cash but on an emotional level too. During my isolation I reached out to bar owners to get their perspective on what is going on. Some were too shattered to talk – closing bars, shuttering dreams, and letting go of employees who shared a vision hurts, like a Niagara downpour of salt on a fresh abdominal wound. As much as I want to push and tell the story, get the ‘scoop’, I must respect the pain and let it go. It is the other thing, the second part of the equation that the spirits industry needs to future proof

– the emotional wellbeing of its workers. Money can only take care of so much; it is the upkeep on mental health that are the practices that must be kept sharp.

During isolation I spoke to some industry friends just to ask if they needed a nonjudgmental outlet. Social media is good for that. It allows the whiskey fan to be a beacon and shine some goodness in a dark time. Helping via the ‘Gram’ or Tiktok is more than hitting ‘like’ and moving on. It is understanding that you are in a relationship with the people. It is being there for them when others cannot, and services have failed. It is when you (and I) remember all the times that whiskey was there for you.

Recovery after Covid will forge bonds and create a stronger financial awareness. It must. The spirits industry needs to inoculate itself for the next big tragedy. It cannot do it alone. It needs all of us to step up and say, “What can I get you?”

Day 14 came and went for us. Our second test was negative and a third one is planned – cannot take any chances. The year 2020 was a long sad ruin of a decade. If ever a year brought out the best adjectives to describe the worst of a situation, it was 2020. One of the best descriptions I heard during my isolation came from outside the industry – “It’s like as if there was a train wreck and every train car was a dumpster fire.”

It needs all of us to be more than enthusiasts