North Carolina brewer loses battle to put ‘F-word’ on labels
The proposed name and label violated a regulation that prohibits alcoholic products from having any advertisement, statement, or design that “depicts the use of alcoholic beverages in a scene that is determined ... to be undignified, immodest, or in bad taste.”
A team of Charlotte craft brewers lost their battle to use the “F-word” on its craft seltzer labels Wednesday.
The North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission upheld a December decision barring Justin and Sarah Brigham from calling their New Year’s Eve-themed hard seltzer “F--2020 BUBS.” The panel informed their lawyer, Michael Boyer, that they would not be allowed to do that.
The proposed name and label violated a regulation that prohibits alcoholic products from having any advertisement, statement, or design that “depicts the use of alcoholic beverages in a scene that is determined by the Commission to be undignified, immodest, or in bad taste.” The decision comes despite the fact that the seltzer’s label (shiny gold with stylized lettering) doesn’t depict or describe anyone using an alcoholic beverage, Boyer said.
The end result: On New Year’s Eve, no one was able to say sayonara to a bad year by raising a can or glass of F--2020 BUBS hard seltzer.
The Brighams believe the regulation is unfair, unclear and arbitrary, with hidden, shifting standards, Boyer said, and they want that changed. “It’s hard to play by the rules when – when one doesn’t know what the rules truly are,” Boyer added.
So the couple renewed their fight for the right to use the F--- 2020 name, Boyer said, although they no longer have plans to produce the brand. Their appeal of the alcohol commission decision was scheduled to be heard when it met Wednesday.
“Though our window of opportunity to release this project has now closed, we have chosen to continue to press this issue in an effort to further the cause of free speech and unbridled creativity at large for the craft beer industry,” the Brighams said in a statement. “While we respect the work of the ABC, we feel that their approval process needs to be fair.”
Past label rejections
This isn’t the first time the Brighams have battled the alcohol commission over the name of one of their products, Boyer said. And it’s not the first time the commission has blocked the name or label of an adult beverage.
The alcohol commission initially rejected the name “Dime Bag” for an India pale ale that Sycamore Brewing produced, Boyer said. “Dime bag” is a term for a package with a small amount of illegal drugs.
Boyer said he persuaded the commission to allow the “Dime Bag Triple IPA” name. Federal regulators and other states had approved the label, he said, and he showed the commissioners that some terms used in the illegal drug trade also are verbiage used by brewers when discussing their craft.
In 2019, a Utah-based brewer tried to sell a beer named “Polygamy Porter” in North Carolina. The artwork on the label showed a nearly naked man with three nearly naked women, and the slogan, “Why have just one!”
The panel rejected Polygamy Porter on the basis that polygamy is illegal.
In August 2019, Wilmington television station WECT reported that the commission had rejected about 230 labels over the previous 17 years.
LAS VEGAS – A little-known food pilgrimage unfolds every day far from the fine dining of The Strip.
At the end of this pilgrimage is a delicious relic of Old Vegas: The cheap hot dog.
Steamed in Budweiser until red and plump, stuck in a fresh, soft bun and topped with your favorite fixings or served plain, these Vienna Beef dogs cost $1.25.
In Las Vegas, few things are sacred. The hot dog cart inside South Point Hotel and Casino is one of them.
A Las Vegas staple is born
Every Monday-Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., gambling patrons or hungry locals visit the cart near the sportsbook.
It has worked this way for four decades, with few changes along the way.
South Point owner Michael Gaughan started selling hot dogs in 1979, when he opened Barbary Coast. He wanted a place where players could grab a quick, easy – and cheap – bite between games.
The first hot dog brand the cart sold was Hebrew National. But as legend goes, there was a taste test involving two guys with the same initials – Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro and North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano.
After a 4-1 vote, a new brand
landed in the steamer: Chicago-style Vienna Beef.
Back then, they cost 75 cents. Today the dogs are a dollar and a quarter.
When the price went up in 2011, the reaction revealed just how holy this hot dog cart is.
“It’s like a sacred Buddha,” said South Point General Manager Ryan Growney.
Hot dog hate mail
The resort makes virtually no money operating the cart. Supplies cost South Point $1.10 per hot dog. So each sale brings in 15 cents.
“Fifteen cents a dog and then you’ve got to pay the salaries and wages of the employees, so it’s about a break-even proposition,” Growney said. “It’s about giving people what they want.”
But when South Point raised the prices for the first time in 42 years, some of those people weren’t too happy.
“We weren’t looking to make money on these things, but we weren’t looking to lose money on these things,” he said.
Growney suggested raising the dogs to a dollar. Gaughan, now 77, interjected.
“You can’t go to a dollar,” he said, “because the hot dog girl won’t get any tips.”
A quarter on every dog adds up when you sell 800 to 1,000 dogs a day.
“So that’s what happened – it went to a buck and a quarter,” Growney said, “and I started getting hate mail. Everybody blamed me.”
Letters, emails, the messages were all the same.
“‘You can’t come in here and change these things’ – I got a handful of ’em,” he said. “People told me, ‘Does Mr. Gaughan know you raised the prices?’ I took the heat.”
An economic indicator
In 2019, South Point sold 232,000 hot dogs – more than 630 a day.
In the year of COVID-19, that number was down by roughly 70,000.
During the Tampa Bay-Kansas City Super Bowl, the cart sold 1,608 hot dogs. That was down about 1,000 from the 2,612 sold last February.
The numbers don’t worry the powers that be.
“Normally for the Super Bowl we’d have 6,000 people in viewing parties, and this year we were only allowed to do 300,” Growney said. “We were down 5,000 bodies. So to only sell 1,000 less hot dogs wasn’t bad.”
Patrons love the hot dogs so much, South Point had to put a limit on the number they could buy at one time – three.
“You can go back in line and buy three more whenever you want, but you’d have people coming in saying, ‘Here’s 20 bucks, gimme 15 hot dogs,’ and then taking them out of the building or taking them back to work,” Growney said. “But that’s not what it’s for. We’re not catering. We just want to make sure our people can grab and go.”