Saint Arnold Brewing announced Monday that it will temporarily close its brewery and restaurant. The reason? Governor Greg Abbott’s office has ruled that it is a bar, not a restaurant, and therefore must close in accordance with the latest coronavirus closure guidelines.
In response to the increase in virus cases in Texas, the governor reversed his plan to reopen, ordering that the bars close again on June 29. Since most restaurants sell alcohol and most bars sell food, the state boundary between the two is a “51 percent rule”: if a local’s alcohol sales account for 51 percent or more of its total income, it is considered a bar.
Brock Wagner, founder and brewer of Saint Arnold, received a call from a local agent for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) on Friday, saying they had received a complaint that Saint Arnold had reopened in violation of orders. current pandemic. In calculating the brewery’s sales breakdown, the governor’s office took into account the beer Saint Arnold sells to its distributors. In addition to its on-site operations, the Houston brewery has a strong retail presence throughout Texas and Louisiana, producing nearly 70,000 barrels of beer last year.
“According to that, we are the largest bar in the world,” said Wagner. He believes this decision defies common sense as it does not distinguish beer sold to distributors for retail purposes from beer sold in the restaurant to a customer.
Wagner tried to appeal the decision and contact the governor’s team over the weekend, but was unsuccessful. The brewery announced the closure on Monday. (The governor’s office did not return a request for comment at the time of publication.)
Saint Arnold has again made sidewalk sales and direct sales; The closure of dinner operations will result in the loss of jobs.
“They claim they want to open Texas and keep people on the job,” Wagner said. “Instead, there are decisions like this that will cut 75 jobs if we don’t reverse this.”
He added that his team has worked hard to serve guests as safely as possible during the pandemic.
The Texas Restaurant Association is currently pressuring the governor to clarify this 51 percent rule. It doesn’t just affect breweries – some restaurants have higher alcohol revenues simply because they sell expensive drinks like high-end cocktails or expensive bottles of wine.
Wagner said he has so far heard “crickets” from the governor’s office, but will continue to try to communicate with them.
“We will not give up,” he said.
