Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Back bar at Young Joni
Young Joni’s not-so-secret back bar boasts a vintage reel-to-reel audio system.
Isn't sitting at a bar in a restaurant the best thing in the world? Isn't participating in Minneapolis and St. Paul's endless tournament to see who can build a better Old Fashioned, isn't that the best? Don't you want that waiting for you when a coronavirus vaccine is found?
Then you have to act now, and call the governor's office and your state legislator—which you can find with this handy-dandy tool—and tell them you want restaurants to be able to sell cocktails with their takeout.
If you heard that Governor Walz was leaning toward signing a bill to allow restaurants to sell alcohol with their food orders, that seems to be proceeding—but weirdly, only with beer and wine, leaving out cocktails, which are a huge, enormous, vast, gigantic part of local culture.
And local economies.
I talked to Brent Frederick from Jester Concepts, owners of the two Parlours, Borough, P.S. Steak, and Monello, who called me because he just heard the carve-out for liquor was being added to the final legislation.
At Jester, coronavirus has looked like this: First they laid off all 220 employees, including head chef Mike DeCamp and Frederick himself. Then, when takeout seemed more feasible, they hired back around a dozen, spread between the two Parlours and P.S. Steak, which is now doing a take-out barbecue menu. "Laying off 220 people had to be the hardest day of your life," I said. "Absolutely," said Frederick. "But I have so many people looking to me for advice and what to do, I feel like I have to stay positive. I don't have any other choice. We send out a weekly email to everyone; This is what this loan we applied for means, here's what it could mean for you. Here's what the governor said, here's what it could mean for you. A lot of people are scared and they don't know what's going on. And we thought everyone was receptive to liquor-take-out, but now it seems to be going away."
Instead, restaurants would be able to sell up to 12 bottles of beer, and 2 bottles of wine with their take-out orders. Which is nice, of course. "But for us, we do a 50/50 food and alcohol mix, and liquor is king. If we can't sell Jesse [Held's] Old Fashioned from Parlour, or Keith Mrotek's from P.S. Steak, how are we different from a liquor store. That's what set us apart before, that's where we're creative, and that's the value we bring. If they have to be pre-packaged in some bottle or steel container fine. But we have to be able to sell them, because that's what makes us unique," and that's what will allow our favorite restaurants with bars to survive.
Don't you want one of those crazy-good Marco Zappia fermented drinks with your Colita takeout? Don't you want something tropical with your Hai Hai takeout? Don't you want something washed with absinthe but also don't you hate buying a whole bottle of absinthe? All those things could be yours!
So, call now! Jacob Frey the mayor of Minneapolis supports it. Mayor Melvin Carter and the city council of St. Paul support it. Who's working back-room magic to strip liquor out of it? Could it be the all-powerful liquor store lobby that opposed Sunday sales for years and years and years? That's my guess. But it's time to be all powerful yourself. Call the governor's office. Call your state legislators.
Make some noise. If you want what you love on the other side, fight now!
