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Ontario bars want to sell takeout beer

This forum is for discussing everything beer retail: LCBO, Beer Store, Grocery Stores and Indie Stores.

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Should bars be able to sell take-out beer?

Sure
30
88%
Nah
4
12%
 
Total votes: 34

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shintriad
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Ontario bars want to sell takeout beer

Post by shintriad »

I've been proposing this for ages, ever since I witnessed the phenomenon in the States. Bars and restaurants are already licensed, but why should you have to physically be in the venue to drink it?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -beer.html

cfrancis
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Post by cfrancis »

shintriad wrote:I've been proposing this for ages, ever since I witnessed the phenomenon in the States. Bars and restaurants are already licensed, but why should you have to physically be in the venue to drink it?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -beer.html
I don't want the additional markup. I'd rather allowing the breweries to open up an additional location and cross sell breweries. They would become essentially craft bottle shops. Albeit only Ontario brews. Eventually you could open them up to being able to import out of province stuff.

Being able to buy from restaurants doesn't appeal to me.

jrenihan
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Post by jrenihan »

The appeal of buying from restaurants/bars, depending on how it is structured, is (a) the ability to purchase, in single bottles, beers that have been brought in privately and are not available through LCBO, and (b) growlers of beer that is not available in bottles and perhaps not from the brewery (at least not conveniently). In case you would prefer to drink at home for whatever reason, this allows you to do that.
It is not uncommon for bars in the US to offer a slight discount to "take away" beer purchases. Obviously there is still a markup, and nobody would sensibly purchase from a bar what they could buy from the brewery or LCBO, but there are benefits to it.
I can't think why anybody would reasonably oppose the move.
Ren

Kel Varnsen
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Post by Kel Varnsen »

shintriad wrote:I've been proposing this for ages, ever since I witnessed the phenomenon in the States. Bars and restaurants are already licensed, but why should you have to physically be in the venue to drink it?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -beer.html
I really don't know why this hasn't already happened. I mean one of the big criticisms of selling beer in grocery/corner stores is that they might sell to kids, or not know how to ID people. People who serve in alcohol already have that training and have liquor licences.

Plus lots of breweries do one-offs or special beers in keg only. Getting a growler from a bar would be cool. Sure there would be mark-up but I would assume it would be less than what you would pay for the beer if you drank it at the restaurant.

Also bars already let you buy a bottle of wine, and take home whatever you don't drink (even if you only drink a tiny sip. So why not let you take beer home too?

toweringpine
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Post by toweringpine »

I lived in Alberta when I was younger. At the time I worked at a big hotel in Banff and everyone had erratic shifts. We would often close out the bar and grab a case to take back to someone's place to keep the party going. Sure it cost a bit more than buying a case at the store but it was alot cheaper than paying by the pint in the bar. If I recall correctly it was usually about $10 more for a case of 24 than the liquor store would have charged.

My lifestyle now makes me much less likely to take advantage of this but I hope they go through with it anyways.

The news reports I have heard about this all seem to indicate that it would be a craft only program. Although I am in favour of craft, I cannot see how they would exclude big brewers.

rejtable
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Post by rejtable »

I wish with all these initiatives being floated that it wasn't an "either/or" kind of mindset.

Want convenience stores? Yes, please.
Want grocery stores? Yes, please.
Want take out? Yes, please.
Want cross selling? Yes, please.
Want private stores? Yes, please.

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El Pinguino
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Post by El Pinguino »

As a traveller, I love when I visit a nice beer bar somewhere and can grab a bottle of something. No hassle of having to make an extra stop at a bottle shop somewhere.

As someone living in Toronto, I'd rarely take advantage of such a service, even given our current limited other options. Unless it's a special case of a limited release beer being made available in bottles at a few selected bars. But still...on the overall "desires of change" ladder this one is pretty low for me.

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boney
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Post by boney »

When down in Buffalo it's pretty great to take away a bottle of something from Blue Monk you missed/has long ago sold out at Premiere. Especially if it's high abv and you are driving. I'd like the opportunity to do the same when in TO.

rejtable
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Post by rejtable »

El Pinguino wrote:As a traveller, I love when I visit a nice beer bar somewhere and can grab a bottle of something. No hassle of having to make an extra stop at a bottle shop somewhere.

As someone living in Toronto, I'd rarely take advantage of such a service, even given our current limited other options. Unless it's a special case of a limited release beer being made available in bottles at a few selected bars. But still...on the overall "desires of change" ladder this one is pretty low for me.
This.

Was in Solana beach last fall, and 2 doors down from my condo was a bar/store combo. A couple of different nights on my way back home I popped in, had a glass or two of draft, and grabbed a bottle or two take away. Sure, it was more expensive than making the trip to a bottle shop, but it was easy.

Who would be opposed to this? If you don't like it, just don't buy from there.

Take out is awesome in NYC, tons of great bars with awesome take out coolers all over town. Again, you are paying for the convenience, but fair trade in my mind.

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Gedge
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Post by Gedge »

I was at Brouwerij Lane in Brooklyn a few months back and was blown away that you could either (a) drink draft or bottles/cans in the bar, (b) get a growler of any of the drafts to go or (c) buy any of the bottles/cans to go (including Red Racer Imperial IPA, which simultaneously impressed me and pissed me off).

http://brouwerijlane.com
rejtable wrote:This.

Was in Solana beach last fall, and 2 doors down from my condo was a bar/store combo. A couple of different nights on my way back home I popped in, had a glass or two of draft, and grabbed a bottle or two take away. Sure, it was more expensive than making the trip to a bottle shop, but it was easy.

Who would be opposed to this? If you don't like it, just don't buy from there.

Take out is awesome in NYC, tons of great bars with awesome take out coolers all over town. Again, you are paying for the convenience, but fair trade in my mind.

rejtable
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Post by rejtable »

Gedge wrote:I was at Brouwerij Lane in Brooklyn a few months back and was blown away that you could either (a) drink draft or bottles/cans in the bar, (b) get a growler of any of the drafts to go or (c) buy any of the bottles/cans to go (including Red Racer Imperial IPA, which simultaneously impressed me and pissed me off).

http://brouwerijlane.com

[
Been! My wife is a pretty committed photog and we were at Torst earlier in the day last summer and she got asking the bartender about great places to take photos of the NYC skyline from Brooklyn at night. He point us to brouwerijlane and the lookout right outside their door. What a great night! Had a few on their patio out back, then after dark grabbed a few takeouts to drink while checking out the NYC skyline.

NYC has dozens (hundreds?) of places just like that, love it.

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lister
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Post by lister »

Last trip in NYC I got sucked into going to the Tenement museum and stumbled across one of these bar/bottle places across the street. Had I known I would have skipped the boring museum all together. It's called Top Hops and I killed time there while the in-laws wasted their time in the Tenement gift shop. It was great! I told the owners that their store was illegal in Ontario.

I'd be in favour of bars being able to do off-sales. I wouldn't mind being able to grab a bottle or growler of a one-off or if the LCBO/TBS and eventual grocery stores are closed then a bar is handy.
lister

thedude99
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Post by thedude99 »

When I lived in Saskatchewan, the bars had off sales, and they had two prices for products. During regular hours - when the Provincial Liquor Store was open, you would pay the same price at the off sale as the Liquor store (or maybe a pittance more, I forget). After hours, the prices would skyrocket.

That was more based around availability and convenience though, not around selection. Although you could walk out with beer from the brew pubs (which at that time was terrible extract brew in 2L bottles).

rejtable
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Post by rejtable »

lister wrote:Last trip in NYC I got sucked into going to the Tenement museum and stumbled across one of these bar/bottle places across the street. Had I known I would have skipped the boring museum all together. It's called Top Hops and I killed time there while the in-laws wasted their time in the Tenement gift shop. It was great! I told the owners that their store was illegal in Ontario.
Yeah, been to Two Hops as well, great place! They had Witchshark bottles when I was there, actually.

cfrancis
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Post by cfrancis »

Now that I see what has been announced. I want take out growlers and bottles from bars.

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