Local bars owners kicking NJ brewers off draft lines

Good to know, vote with your dollars and don't support these establishments. They obvioulsy don't want your money anyways. There are some really stupid liquor laws out there.

 

Man, NJ laws suck.

But there is some of this in PA too. A local brewery (which has a taproom that serves food) recently commented on social media "Several local bars won't put us on tap because we are viewed as competition".

 

Name and shame... those bars don't deserve the business from this community.

 

The brewery was Round Guys but he didn't name names in the post. He only named some local bars that DO carry their beer.

 

Man, do they come off as a bunch of whiny crybabies or what. And it's not even the direct competition they are trying to portray it as. Good to see its not really catching on, at least.

 

Bar owners bite off noses to spite their faces. More at 11

 

I just like to imagine that a few of these restaurant & bar owners got together and plotted this and one of them had this idea... and then the rest of them were like, "Yeah, THAT'LL show them!"

 

Funny how the bar owners toss around that $1,000,000 cost like it's the going rate for a license. It's only happened once. In New Providence where i live there were no licenses until 2 years ago when the town issued 4 of them. They weren't cheap $400,000 apiece. That's still a lot less than 1,000,000.

 

Aren't they treated like an asset, too? Where the license holder sells it to the next one?

 

I'd rather purchase cans from a local brewer and drink them at home than drink macro beer at a bar. And I don't think I'm alone. At least as it affects me, these bar owners have zero leverage.

 

Yes they could be. 3 of them were purchased by people who already had restaurants in town. The 4th belongs to someone who is looking for a site to start a restaurant.

 

Yes. They can be sold, passed through your estate. Like any other asset. The one thing is your license could be revoked if you get violating the rules too many times

 

Was in Demented earlier today and this came up in conversation with folks there. The bar across the street from them in this article is supposedly getting rid of all craft beers. Talk about short sighted.

 

I for one have no interest in bars that don't have craft beer, and will actively avoid these bars that refuse to provide local options. That said, I am not going to disparage an owner for making a decision that s/he believes is in their best interests. My position would change, however, if it comes out that the macro distributors are supporting this boycott with a price break or free equipment or TVs.
Assuming everything is above board, though, there are legitimate business reasons for not carrying craft. The margins are higher on macro beers (I imagine), plus they have to meet demand. Remember craft beer is still a very small part of this market. So they might stay macro to meet customer demand. I had this conversation with the owner/manager of a local dive near me. They have six or eight lines, with shock top, goose ipa, pbr, Miller, bud light, corona, etc. I asked the guy about putting Kane on and he told me he could not spare the line. His customers come for cheap beer and especially during football season he could not replace any of those lines. Something local would not do nearly as well. At least that was his business judgment. I'm not going to knock him for that even if I disagree.

 

So let me get this straight. These bar owners think that because patrons won't have to go through a tour to get a pour, they will now be more inclined to go to the brewery? When I went to Kane, the "tour" consisted of handing me a brochure. Hardly a deterrent.

 

The "tour" is like that at most NJ breweries. It was always a stupid concession by lawmakers to satisfy the distro lobbyists. I'm glad to see the law might finally go through

 

http://www.liquorlicensepanj.com/featured-listings/

It's happened more than once (Montclair had a $1.2 million sale) but most go for a lot less. The majority of the sales are in the $200-$600 k range. Just like a house, it depends on location, location and location.

I don't blame liquor license holders for being protective of the value of their licenses, they would be foolish not to be. The guy that owns Ott's has 4 locations. I'm sure he has a few million invested in his bars.

Sometimes they just need to pick and choose their battles a little better. This one seems kind of petty.

 

When else did this happen? The one in Montclair was the first one and I haven't heard of any since than.

 

Cherry Hill sold a license for $1.5. There was also a sale for $1.8 but I don't know where.