Devil's in the details of free pour

e-mail this story More details "You get a better taste with free pour. It creates a better mood." Nathaniel Johnson, 26, Easley "South Carolina needs to get up to date with the rest of the country. If you're not getting as much alcohol, maybe it will make us all safer." Shelby Robinson, 30, Travelers Rest "I voted to get rid of minibottles. I feel like I'm on airplane all the time when I want to get a drink." Derek Landers, 21, Mauldin

The future of how liquor drinks are poured, sold and taxed in restaurants and bars now rests on the shoulders of state lawmakers, courtesy of the overwhelming number of voters who thought it best to remove from the state Constitution a requirement that liquor be poured exclusively from minibottles.

The outcome will affect you whether you drink or not because it reaches beyond the cost, strength and availability of a cocktail. Also hanging in the balance is tax money that funds alcohol and drug abuse programs, and possibly South Carolina's high rate of drunken-driving deaths.

For 14 years, South Carolina has been the only state to force restaurants and bars to pour from the 1.7-ounce minibottles. Voters on Nov. 2 paved the way to change that, through referendum, by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin.

In January, legislators will decide how best to handle a switch to "free pour" that allows the use of larger bottles, a change that could take effect as soon as July 1 provided the General Assembly hammers out the details before it adjourns in June.

The state House of Representatives and the Senate have discussed plans but haven't agreed on the finer points.

For instance, how will the state replace and effectively collect the soon-to-be-abolished minibottle tax? Will bars be required to use pouring devices that measure before the customer's eye how much liquor he's getting? Will there be a limit on how much can be poured?

Taxing issues With minibottles, collection of the 25-cent-per-minibottle tax is easy because it is assessed at the liquor stores before a bottle is opened. Last year, about 76 million minibottles were sold in South Carolina and $25 million in taxes collected.

Economists have said that if the state raises the tax on a liquor drink from 5 percent to 10 percent, minibottle tax revenues that help fund drug and alcohol abuse programs should be replaced if not slightly increased.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle have embraced that idea.

Kat Rice just hopes it all works out.

As executive director of the Phoenix Center, which is run by the Greenville County drug and alcohol abuse commission, Rice depends on the nearly $500,000 a year her organization receives from minibottle taxes to keep running.

With budget cuts ever creeping, she says, any fall off could mean a cut in services.

"Nobody really knows what's going to happen," Rice said. "We've been cut to the bone. If they cut us anymore, I don't know how we're going to operate."

State Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, who filibustered a bill to lay out a free-pour strategy, said he's concerned that taxes won't be collected in whole because there will be more leeway in how drinks are poured.

Instead of free pour, Leventis sees it as "undetermined pour:" A bartender could give extra for a favored customer; drinks that are sold as two-for-one specials could be charged as one drink, avoiding a portion of tax.

The move away from minibottles is much like the lottery, Leventis said. Voters might not get what they thought they were getting.

"There's been a lot of disappointment with the way the lottery's been structured and where the money goes," he said. "The people have spoken, but it's sad indeed when we ask the public about these issues we don't tell them beforehand what it is that we will implement. They just have to take it on blind faith."

To remedy the tax issue, Leventis has proposed pulling one liter liquor bottles off the shelves for the expressed use of restaurants and bars in a similar arrangement to minibottles, where 58 Class B wholesalers in the state hold exclusive licenses to sell to restaurants and bars.

The problem with that, said Suzie Riga, vice president of Green's Beverages, one of the largest liquor retailers in the state, is that the one liter bottles are popular among regular customers.

But otherwise, Leventis said that what now takes two state employees to oversee tax collection could take 15 to 20 if it's applied at the restaurant and bar level.

However, State Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, who helped introduce the minibottle legislation, said that tax collection shouldn't be a problem. There is already a staff in place to collect the 5 percent sales tax on drinks now.

As it stands, Hayes said there is "strong support" to add a 5 percent liquor tax onto a 5 percent sales tax. And if it turns out that not enough money is being raised to fund treatment programs, Hayes said he's confident the tax can be adjusted, especially now that it no longer requires amending the state constitution.

Your cocktail The switch to free pour almost certainly will mean weaker drinks in bars and restaurants. They will still be allowed to use minibottles (and customers will be allowed to buy them from liquor stores), but establishments are expected to turn to bigger bottles.

The average size of a liquor serving nationwide is 1.25 ounces. With bigger bottles, bartenders will no longer have to serve 1.7 ounces, and they'll be able to mix cocktails to recipe rather than in equal portions.

Nathaniel Johnson likes that. When traveling to Tennessee, Johnson, 26, of Easley, said he notices that a Crown and Butterscotch Schnapps mixed drink tastes better because the portions aren't required to be equal.

"You might get a little more of this and little less of that," he said. "You get a better taste with free pour."

Stanford Thomas, 34, of Greer, isn't so sure.

"It will probably be better for the customer," he said, "but at the same time, they can make your drink weaker."

And that weaker drink won't necessarily equate to a lower price.

Bar owners say that while the cost of multiple-liquor drinks will decrease because portions will be measured differently, the price on your typical rum and Coke or gin and tonic will likely stay the same.

Competition could drive prices down, but Frampton Ash, assistant general manager of Wild Wing Cafe in downtown Greenville, said he's seen no indication that bars in Greenville will make the move.

"Most drinks are probably going to stay about the same price," Ash said. "Most of the states charge what we charge now. You just happen to get a little bit more alcohol in South Carolina with the minibottles."

Jeff Meister, who tends bar at Wild Wing Cafe, said the switch to free pour will be quite an adjustment. The shelves will have to be reorganized to accommodate larger bottles, an obstacle he said will be more of an issue for smaller establishments.

But the prospect of having the freedom to be creative is encouraging, he said.

"A lot of the younger people here who haven't bartended without minibottles will have to adjust, but that's not a problem," Meister said. "Overall, it's going to work, but it's going to take some time."

A strong force behind the switch to free pour has been Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which has its sights on lower alcohol portions. The idea is that serving less per drink will do something to improve South Carolina's status as the worst state for drunken-driving deaths.

With the change, Donna Carter, state chairwoman for MADD, said she'd like to see not only a requirement that bottles have measuring devices to ensure portions are consistent, but also a provision that restricts portions to the national average of 1.25.

"It should be a requirement and I think it should be set up where people see that they're getting the amount that they're supposed to," Carter said. "We just want something clean and simple."

Sen. Hayes, however, said he doesn't think requiring certain portions will happen.

"I don't think we'd have support to get that through the House and Senate," Hayes said, "and I want to get the enabling legislation done or we haven't accomplished anything."

A portion requirement probably isn't needed anyway, he said, because the market will dictate smaller portions than minibottles, as well as the use of pouring devices that measure out portions.

Wild Wing will use such a device, Ash said, as will others, most likely.

"It helps both sides if it's poured like that, because the customer actually sees the bartender make the drink and knows that the bottle pours until it stops. Once it stops, you know one ounce is coming out of that bottle."