Many bar and eateries are surviving the current crisis by selling wines and beers as a takeout option
With a son in the business, I feel as keenly as anyone what pubs and restaurants have been going through these past few months, so it’s no surprise that they’ve been turning to other avenues to pay the bills. And a “pivot” to selling booze has been one obvious option.
Of course, this isn’t entirely new. St John in London, for instance, has been doing it for years (and was the first Michelin-starred restaurant to do bag-in-box), as have the likes of Vinoteca, and Noble Rot founders Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, who market cases of their “Rotters Greatest Hits” from the best-selling wines on their list, while many pubs now sell beer by the growler and, increasingly, by the can. Then there are those whose business model has always been a mixture of on- and off-trade – wine shops that sit companionably alongside wine bars.
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