With an estimated 30,000 establishments closing down, with over 6 million jobs lost since the pandemic hit – the list of restaurants, bars, concert halls, comedy clubs, dives, wineries, gambling halls and so many other hospitality venues lost to COVID-19 continues to grow.
We now begin to reckon with the long-term effects of this tragedy. Most importantly, we’ll need to deal with the subsequent economic fallout impacting those who relied on this model for survival. Many of the people working behind the scenes are lower-income immigrants with limited choices and higher risk of exposure. Many despite fantastic talent, may never come back to the trade.
The alternative for any bartender whose bar shut down has been to forego the original distribution model and establish a direct connection with brands. The moment is prime to do so: with low barriers of content creation and virality – that’s typically all you need to generate good momentum with your new customers, which ultimately leads to influenced consumer behavior.
Back to Brands
But back to brands, alcohol brands that is which has helped in anyway that it can, elaborating one of a kind digital campaigns, pocket appearances by guest bartenders turned ambassadors to now common $500 dollar per hour lessons over Zoom.
Bartenders have always been your gate to less known spirits and now lend their names to a growing category of ready to drink (RTD) and to-go spirits. The label matters a lot more for the customer at home, and it makes sense the off-trade seen what I call a flight to quality and trust. Meanwhile, at the restaurant, you always trust(ed), your bartender would lead you into a better drinking experience.
“Bartenders have always been your gate to less known spirits”
These changes would not have been possible without the very same people whose jobs have been largely eliminated. The undeniability that social distance saves lives also qualifies as the ultimate business model killer to an already thin-margin, volume-oriented industry. The only way to survive is a contraction, and payroll reduction quickly accomplishes that.
Conversely, brands now, more than ever, rely on influence to get its products in the hands of its most loyal customers. New players and established brands both benefit from savvy social media aggregators with access to time and, most importantly, its followers who range internationally and among social classes and even ideology. Alcohol (no longer sports) is one of the few things that keep us opposites united these days though I still feel sorry for those who had to deal with this pile of nonsense that we still call 2020.
This project is, in part, a series of stories centered around people who have worked with spirits for a very long time and developed excellent partnerships with alcohol producers. Each has suffered immensely during this shut down mostly without much to say – it’s hard to when comparing your suffering with someone else’s – after all, you’re just (working for) another bar.
Change Is Gonna Come
I expect this wave of change only to accelerate in the next few years, with current and future generations rebounding from this abrupt socioeconomic experiment we’ve been living through in 2020. It’s an unfortunate one, where some bear the more significant share of the consequences, especially when those in power fail to govern and adapt appropriately, starting with having no contingency plan when something so dire hit.
Since last May, many bartenders I know found themselves amid racial and social uprise, protesting government lockdowns and inadequate help. And it’s easy to see why the two causes converge. Some of what the protesters demanded was accountability for how a dire situation should be handled. They’ve been victims of that same struggle for too long, hoping today is the day the customer leaves a decent tip and that there will be enough customers to come by tomorrow to keep the lights on.
Being a good neighbor and helping the community in tough times, providing essential services like food and sanitizers, with easy access to capital to build and improve, would have allowed the on-trade to keep going during the uncertain time. Instead, it is still caught in a bizarre back and forth of words and finger-pointing. For many, the call to build patios while ensuring employee safety standards was a giant cash burden. There just wasn’t enough done to keep them hospitality afloat during uncertainty and reduced demand.
Without making yourself essential, you’ll quickly just become another victim of time.
To the contrabandist in all of us,
CJ
Editor In Chief – Contrabandist LAB
Permanently CLOSED
Los Angeles
- Baco Mercat – DTLA
- Amacita – Culver City
- The Bazaar at the SLS
- Broken Spanish – DTLA
- Somni at the SLS
- Flaming Saddles – West Hollywood
- Patina – DTLA
- Ippudo Ramen – Santa Monica
- Here’s Looking At You – KTown
- Fig & Olive – Melrose
- Thai Gourmet – LBC
- Dong Il Jang
- Terroni – DTLA
- Bibo Ergo Sum
- Villa Blanca
- Federal Bar – LBC
- Din Tai Fung – Arcadia
Celso Oliveira 