Can California bars really serve drinks to go during coronavirus crisis? It’s complicated
The Snug, a relatively young bar in downtown Sacramento, had been offering “to go cocktails” as recently as last week after the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control relaxed its rules governing such sales in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But apparently those new regulations do not apply to bars like The Snug, which lacks a kitchen, and the ABC shut its operations down, the bar announced on its website and Instagram page last Friday.
“We are beyond bummed to announce we can no longer serve to go cocktails,” the announcement read. “Due to a registered complaint with the ABC we are ending service immediately and refunding any pending orders.”
In mid-March, the ABC said it would temporarily allow some establishments to do curbside sales of alcoholic beverages, with the general caveats that the drinks must be sealed and placed directly into the trunks of customers’ cars and served with food.
Many Sacramento eateries jumped at that opportunity, some changing their entire business models. Tank House BBQ & Bar owners Tyler and Melissa Williams, for instance, began selling fruity mixed drinks from the Jungle Bird tiki bar and the Ten Ten Room, which they also own. Tank House’s in-house bar, meanwhile, was mostly replaced with a small-scale butcher shop.
But the department’s new rules have finer details, a lot more complex than they may first appear. The ABC in late March set up a web page providing “guidance by license type,” a tool to inform establishments about the conditions under which they can or cannot sell beer, wine or distilled spirits to go, with the answers varying among 12 different categories of license types.
The exact requirements get tricky and verbose, but in most cases, the ABC allows businesses to sell some combination of to-go beer, wine or spirits, but only “when sold in conjunction with meals prepared for pick-up or delivery,” further stating that the business must be a “bona fide eating place.” This means that most restaurants that include bars can sell at least some of their alcoholic drinks to go; establishments like bars and taverns that only sell snack food cannot.
The Williamses’ three establishments — Tank House, Jungle Bird and Ten Ten Room — are each licensed as an “On Sale General - Eating Place,” according to the ABC license lookup tool available online. The Tank House website includes drink menus for the other two businesses’ cocktails; in bright red, all-caps letters in the top right of each: “Only available with purchase of food item.”
The Snug, by contrast, is licensed under the category of “On Sale General - Public Premises,” and according to the ABC, establishments under this license type are “generally prohibited from serving meals,” but the department says it has been advised “that some do have kitchen facilities and do serve meals” anyway, the web page says.
“As such, the Department is allowing them to operate in the same manner as bona fide restaurants” during the coronavirus crisis, the ABC website states.
But The Snug does not have a kitchen, and its social media posts advertising the service made no mention of food. Orders were required to be placed online through The Snug’s website, but that web page is currently inactive.
The Snug was among the latest projects opened by Sacramento’s de Vere brothers. Their best-known venture, De Vere’s Irish Pub, has been closed for nearly a month.
“It’ll be corned beef and cabbage to go, and tonight we raise a glass of whiskey ... and then we’re going to put our pub to sleep until this is all over,” Henry de Vere White told The Bee as he stood outside his shuttered L Street restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day — two days before Gov. Newsom’s stay-at-home order became a legal mandate across California, but a few days after he began strongly urging restaurants to stop all but takeout and delivery service.
The Snug on March 21 went live with “no contact” to-go cocktail orders, according to its Instagram page. The social media announcement said that all cocktails come with ice, garnish and a package containing instructions on how to be a “home bartender and make it properly.” Food was not mentioned on that initial Instagram post.
After a complaint filed with the ABC, The Snug stopped serving to-go cocktails, and is closed as a result.
In the Instagram post announcing the closure, ownership said it was “sending love to whoever is out there hating,” presumably referring to whoever may have filed a complaint with the ABC, adding: “We need to work together, not against each other.” The post had more than 800 likes and over 150 comments, most of them expressing disappointment that the to-go service was ending.
Neither the bar nor the ABC has indicated that any other sanction or punishments were levied aside from The Snug being forced to stop its to-go sales. No disciplinary action is shown on the state registry of licenses.
Are bars, alcohol essential?
Newsom on March 19 issued a sweeping, statewide stay-home order in a dramatic effort intended to flatten the growth curve of the highly contagious coronavirus, which as of this past weekend had killed more than 650 in California, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The mandate called for all of the state’s nearly 40 million residents to stay in their homes except for reasons deemed “essential,” such as shopping for food or supplies, caring for a sick loved one, seeking medical attention or going to work at an essential job.
In the weeks since then, there has been some debate regarding what is and should be considered “essential,” especially as the financial impact has been staggering to entire sectors of the economy, especially the restaurant industry. Some churches, separately, have said they should be exempt from suspending in-person services because they consider religious worship to be essential, though most transitioned their services online.
In his March 19 order, Newsom specified that bars and nightclubs must shutter entirely, while restaurants could continue to provide takeout and delivery service so long as they ceased sit-down dining. Although places like supermarkets and convenience stores are considered essential and do continue to sell alcohol, and though the state ABC has lifted some regulations to allow restaurants the unprecedented ability to sell drinks to go, there’s nothing in Newsom’s order that classifies alcohol as essential.
Adapting business models, and indeed perhaps even attempting to make use of loopholes as the state relaxes alcohol regulations, can be seen as a matter of survival for some of these establishments. The coronavirus has wrought havoc on Sacramento’s restaurant and craft bar scene just as it was beginning to blossom. About 75,000 people worked in Sacramento’s bars and restaurants before the pandemic brought things to a screeching halt.
Speaking to The Bee on St. Patrick’s Day, Henry de Vire White said the pandemic “is going to flatten a lot of small businesses.”
He also said at the time that he was planning to furlough employees at his downtown pub, the sister pub in Davis and The Snug, while he was attempting to learn about the full range of benefits he could continue to offer. On its website, The Snug has a tip pool, giving an option for those who wish to support the bar to donate $1.
The Snug opened last January at 1800 15th St., near R Street and the Ice Blocks in downtown Sacramento. A “snug” is a term for a small, walled-off room inside an Irish pub.
“They were originally for priests and women because it was improper for them to go up to the bar,” co-owner Simon de Vere White told Sactown Magazine in an early 2019 feature. “They were used for meetings -- uprisings and revolutions were formed in snugs.”
The Snug wrote last week on Instagram: “Offering to go cocktails was not only keeping us connected to our community, the funds were being directly distributed to benefit our staff in this tough financial time. Thank you for letting us bring some sunshine and fun into your homes.
“What a shame it had to end this way.”
