CHARLOTTE, NC – Restaurants and bars have weathered so many challenges over the past year, but the pain isn’t over – owners said they were now struggling with a low alcohol level.
Kelly Minton has been in the bar for 12 years. He works for KiKi, one of the top bars in Charlotte, and said he has never seen anything like it.
“I mean, we’d be out of things for a week or two,” he said.
Due to the shortage, there was only one bottle of Jack Daniels at Supperland for the whole night on Saturday.
“Some of these are just supply chain problems, be it glass shortages, staff shortages, truck shortages or the like,” said Jon Rosenberg, general manager at Supperland.
[ ALSO READ: Restaurants like Pinky’s Westside Grill raising prices due to menu item shortage ]
Part of the problem is that North Carolina is a control state, which means the government tightly regulates the flow of alcohol. South Carolina also has some deficiency, although it is not a controlling state and the deficiency is not that severe.
“At that point, I was hearing so many excuses that I just wished the state would say, ‘Look, that’s what they’re doing. It’s our fault, ‘”Minton said.
Some of the skimpy items are Triple Sec, Tequila, Ketel One, and the occasional Jack Daniels. This means that a customer can ask for a range of beverages only to be disappointed.
“It ends up when we don’t have it and our guests look at each other like, ‘Well, why don’t you have that?’ It should be this, it should be, and it’s hard to always say no, ”said Rosenberg.
“It’s very, very hard to run a bar in North Carolina just because of the shortage,” Minton said.
Bartenders ask the public for patience. It has been like this for months and the ABC board of directors has reportedly not released any details on when the situation might improve.
(Watch Below: Nationwide Supply Chain Bottlenecks Affecting Taco Bell Menu)
© 2021 Cox Media Group