@cinnamon1212. Inquiring minds would like to know your brand even if you want to PM me… Lol…
Here in NY restaurants can have take out for alcohol, only for what they have a license to sell and it has to be in a closed sealed container and it has to come with food. Restaurants are interpreting it that they can sell you a bottle of wine, but they can’t put the wine in a cup with a lid, I assume correctly. Previously beer was the only beverage you could get with take out.
We are eating take out once a week to support our local restaurants.
One local winery is selling a tasting kit… 5 1-oz “pours” (not icky mini bottles like those sold on airplanes but actual pours from bigger bottles packaged to go) - for folks to take home and have blind tasting. I believe that our liquor laws have been relaxed a bit through this safer at home time.
This summer we will be eating out only in places that offer nice outdoor seating (think Hawaii). If our favorite restaurant continues to offer takeout, we will continue with that. They don’t have Patz and Hall or Rombauer wines, so the wine list at home is a little better according to Mr. 
We kind of got used to eating fancy on our deck… 
In our experience, it’s not so much that employees are not trained or don’t know food handling safety.
It’s more that, just like in other jobs, there is significant pressure for fewer employees to do more and to do it more quickly.
This results in cutting corners.
Ex: Yes, every person who brings back dirty plates from the dining room to the dish room should wash their hands at the sink with soap & water for the duration of the Happy Birthday song.
Ain’t gonna happen.
I launched Peony Vodka 3 years ago, and then we were discovered by a top liquor industry person, who said we were not telling our story well enough, and so we tweaked our recipe and were just about to launch what I call Peony 2.0, which was renamed Three Meadows & A Pony ~ Peony Flower Vodka. We have a draft website out there, but it is in DRAFT form – e.g. the “online ordering” is a placeholder, not in effect.
I doubt that many people are going to order “to-go” alcohol that is marked up 300% when they can buy the same bottle for 1/3 the price. Restaurants that rely heavily on in store alcohol sales (e.g. bottles of wine, expensive mixed drinks, etc.) to be profitable are going to be in big trouble for the foreseeable future. It’s a perfect storm: high unemployment combined with people not wanting to gather in groups.
We are not selling the booze at menu list price, but discounted to be more in line with retail prices.
Our restaurants are allowed to sell beer and wine for carryout with food orders. The prices are not marked up…in fact some are way less expensive than what our liquor stores are charging right now.
Our liquor stores are now curbside pick up only. No more roaming around the stores.
Our breweries are doing curbside pick up, and have also been given special permission for now to deliver in sealed containers. That has been a huge thing at our local microbrewery.
This is the exception not the rule. For most restaurants, alcohol sales are where they have the highest gross margins. They can buy alcohol at a discount and charge a huge mark-up to the customer. You ever get a margarita at a mexican restaurant? North of $10, huge mark-up. I don’t know many couples that are going to order 2 margaritas each to-go? If you are sitting in the restaurant, much easier to order two drinks with your meal and not be concerned.
https://elrestaurante.com/blogs/sample-blog/average-price-of-a-margarita/
But people are buying “margarita kits”.
Again, more in line with retail prices.
^ For dining in, yes, alcohol is marked up but in my area, during COVID-19 take away times, it is as @Midwest67 and @thumper1 have described - not the same markups/margins.
The take out place where we’ve also been ordering a bottle of wine is discounting the wine to prices that would probably be close to retail. They also have an advantage in that all their wine is from Croatia, and I don’t think any of our local retailers carry it!
Who is getting that $600 a week? Not anyone I know. Heck, I’m in line for it myself and I’m told the wait in front of me is long and some states have just started processing them. Theyalso end July 15 which is about when restaurants can expect to be back in swing of things. About time all those deferred bills need to be paid too. I see 2 more months of lockdowns though no way as we are having them now.
Are you talking about the $600 for unemployment? Colorado filers are getting it, plus their Colorado amount (max of $561)
I think you guys are missing the point. Selling alcohol inside a restaurant with sit down customers is how most of these restaurants are able to make profits and survive. Selling alcohol at deep discounts to “to-go” customers barely keeps them afloat, if at all. As it is, 80% of small businesses (like restaurants) will close within 5 years and that is during the best of times not during a recession and pandemic.
To summarize, restaurants that serve alcohol HAVE to have customers sit down in their restaurants to stay in business more than a few months. The Chili’s and Ruth Chris type of restaurants cannot stay in business long doing take-out.
Our place sells the to-go margaritas by the quart. I’m not paying attention to the costs. Its about making sure that the place is around when they are able to re-open
Very nice… Have to take more of a look later. It’s funny in this extreme downtime we are doing Facebook and Instagram webinars for our business. Already getting results which brings us to the question… “Why didn’t we do this earlier”.
Before I was laid off I was the office manager for two sister restaurants, and my duties included running costs, entering sales into QuickBooks, entering and paying all invoices, and payroll.
…acutely aware of what it takes to make a profit, IOW.
Currently, the curbside take out & delivery business has exceeded expectations.
Is it at the pre-closure levels of sales? No. Not at all.
But in our favor? Labor costs, including managers, is a fraction of what it was before.
In addition, the owners do not derive their living expenses from these restaurants. They can afford to take a loss for a bit. How long? We’ll find out.
Ditto where H works. Also a restaurant.
We now buy bottles of local wines from restaurants and wineries directly. Hope the former are making some $$ off these sales - they are selling the wines at or lower prices than grocery stores. We figured grocery stores make more than enough off our food and TP purchases.
Temps here will hit 103 by Thursday. We are past the window for comfortable outdoor dining. Soon we’ll be past the window for venturing out comfortably at all. We’re entering our annual summer hibernation season. The heat here forces a natural SIP until October (we’ve had many hot Halloweens). This does not bode well for restaurants here.