islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

New Year opens way for big bottles in S.C. bars

Add Comment

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The minibottle's reign in South Carolina bars ends at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, but many in the food and drink industry say the changeover to big bottles may appear a bit slow.

"I don't think you'll see very many bars immediately going out and start cracking big bottles," said Tom Sponseller, president of the South Carolina Hospitality Association. "They've got an inventory of little bottles they've got to get rid of first, and the only way they can get rid of them is to sell them."

Since New Year's Day falls on a Sunday this year, many establishments are expected to have last call just before the clock strikes midnight on Saturday.

"If it had fallen on a different day, like a Friday, we could have poured our first free-pour drink at 12:01; it would have been neat," said Danny Holmes, owner of Towne Tavern in Fort Mill.

Even in Columbia, Myrtle Beach and other localities with a local option on Sunday mixed-drink sales, food and drink industry representatives say establishments that plan to move to big bottles aren't that concerned about the weekend holiday.

"They're not all that concerned about that first day, as long as they get it the first week or so," said Lake Wylie liquor dealer Vince Mugavero, who sells wholesale to about 80 bars and restaurants.

Towne Tavern's Holmes said he will be free-pouring when the sports bar reopens at 10:30 a.m. Monday. "We will have leftover inventory, be we'll be able to get it to another bar owner who's staying with minis."

Holmes said New Year's Day will be a valuable day off.

"We'll be able to clear out our inventory, we'll change the way the bar is situated, and we've got to make some changes in our computer" to allow for different drink prices and a new 5 percent sales tax on mixed drinks that will replace the old tax of 25 cents per minibottle.

In June, Gov. Mark Sanford signed the bill that allows businesses to serve drinks from bigger bottles and not the smaller bottles that had been required by law since 1973. Voters asked for the change in 2004 when they approved a state constitutional amendment that ended the requirement that bars serve liquor only from containers of less than 2 ounces.

South Carolina was the last state to allow establishments to part with minibottles.

Liquor dealer Mugavero said that although major chain restaurants and independents are expected to dump the minibottles as fast as they can, "The little guys are going to resist, because they don't sell all that much, and because they say their customers want the stronger drink."

The mini's 1.7-ounce pour is stronger than what you get from most bartenders across the nation, including in North Carolina, where the standard is 1.25 ounces. Because of that, people who want to crack down on drunken driving formed an unusual coalition with bar owners who didn't like minibottles, contending they were a nuisance and less profitable than pouring from big bottles.

---

Information from: The Charlotte Observer, http://www.charlotte.com/