To-go cocktails should be here to stay
It took a pandemic to break through some of the gridlock in the Pennsylvania Legislature, with lawmakers acting swiftly and decisively to attempt to keep residents safe and allow businesses to continue operating in reduced capacities.
One of the more popular of the state’s emergency provisions in response to COVID-19 was allowing bars and restaurants, which took the pandemic’s punch right on the nose, to sell alcoholic beverages to go. The “roadie” waiver helped the restaurant industry to partially make up some of the losses caused by months of closures — and consumers liked it, too.
That waiver expired in June, but business isn’t back to normal yet. Many restaurateurs want the Legislature to enshrine the provision permanently. The House has passed a bill to that effect, and it’s awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The measure should pass expeditiously.
Pennsylvania’s state liquor system remains an unnecessary evil that frustrates residents and keeps money flowing to state coffers. This may not be the time for drastic change, as many rely on the system for good-paying jobs, but beginning to weaken the state’s sovereignty over alcohol sales is a step in the right direction for residents and restaurateurs alike.
Gov. Tom Wolf is balking. He’s indicated an openness to allowing taverns and restaurants to sell to-go cocktails but is less sanguine about the sale of “ready to drink” beverages: items that are liquor-based and currently sold only in stateowned liquor stores. These include items such as canned gin and tonic, pre-mixed margaritas, wine-based seltzers and other spirits found on the shelves of state stores.
This is also the fastest growing alcoholic beverage market category, according to the International Wines and Spirits Record. Denying private businesses the opportunity to cash in on this trend as a way to replace some of the losses caused by COVID19 is a money-grabbing attempt to preserve a state system that 48 other states abandoned long ago.
Credit where it’s due, though: Mr. Wolf’s administration has taken steps to open up the sale of beer and wine in supermarkets and convenience stores.
The issue at hand is the next logical step in relocating control of liquor sales to private industries from state control.
More than 20 other states have approved measures to keep cocktails to go on the menu for patrons, up from just two (Florida and Iowa) prior to the pandemic. It’s the largest shift since the repeal of Prohibition, industry experts say.
Pennsylvania has an opportunity here. In recent weeks, indoor dining has begun to dip again nationally. Arming restaurants with a tool to bolster sales receipts in the fight to outlast the battering of the pandemic is the right call.