By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

A “Devil’s Haircut” is one of Coast Bar & Grill’s signature cocktails. The $8 drink consists of a Brazilian rum called Cabana Cachaça, triple sec, pineapple juice and pomegranate nectar.

Customers request it as they do another Coast signature drink, the “Cheeky Monkey,” an $8 concoction made with Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka, banana liqueur and cream, according to Coast bartender John Aquino.

Until January 2006, Aquino could not prepare those drinks. Prior to that time, minibottles, those 1.7-ounce miniature liquor bottles often associated with airline hospitality, ruled the liquor shelves in South Carolina bars and restaurants, a reign the state mandated in 1973. When making a cocktail, bartenders had to pour the entire contents of a minibottle, which threw out of whack drink recipes requiring merely a splash or two of a particular liquor. And certain spirits such as Cabana Cachaça were not available in minibottles, Aquino said.

That all changed about a year ago, when the state’s minibottle law got poured down the drain, freeing bars and restaurants to fill up with the big bottles. South Carolina bartenders now prepare standard mixed drinks according to the actual recipes—something out-of-state, alcohol-imbibing tourists are used to—and can make more drinks more quickly, which means more business, Aquino pointed out.

Also, since big bottles last longer, Coast Bar & Grill has enjoyed a 12% drop in liquor costs, Aquino said.

At McCrady’s, martini orders have increased since the Charleston restaurant switched to big bottles a year ago. The changeover lowered McCrady’s martini prices—a chocolate martini, a favorite among McCrady’s customers, cost $14 when minibottles were used but now costs $10—and enabled bartenders to broaden their martini repertoire, said Clint Sloan, McCrady’s beverage director.

More than two-thirds of South Carolina restaurants serving alcohol have done away with minibottles. The switch from mini to big bottles has gone with scarcely a hiccup, according to Tom Sponseller, president of the South Carolina Hospitality Association.

“We’re very happy with it,” Sponseller said of the transition. “Everything has gone smoothly so far.”

Some restaurants still use minibottles while also stocking big bottles. At Fleet Landing, a restaurant on the Charleston waterfront, lack of storage space limits big-bottle capacity. Cognacs, cordials, single-malt scotches and other high-end liquors at the restaurant are still handled through minibottles, said bartender Brian Franklin.

Additionally, the restaurant’s local customers generally have a sentimental attachment to minibottles while out-of-state tourists find them something of a novelty, Franklin said.

Minibottles made it easier for the state to collect liquor taxes. In the first 10 months after the switch was made at the beginning of 2006, liquor sales tax collections dropped $2 million compared with the first 10 months of 2005, the Associated Press reported. However, the lost revenue could be attributed to closed bars, more responsible drinkers and other reasons having little to do with the switch from minibottles, according to economist Robert Martin of the state’s Board of Economic Advisors.

Dennis Quick is senior staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.

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