By DENNIS QUICK
Senior Staff Writer

Sirena Rodecap, a bartender at McCrady’s restaurant, believes South Carolina’s minibottle law has stuffed a cork in her talents. The New York-trained mixologist looks forward to the day regular-sized liquor bottles become legal in the Palmetto State’s restaurants and bars.

Hospitality industry experts say that day could be either Sept. 1 or Jan. 1, 2006, depending on how quickly the General Assembly removes the minibottle law from the state constitution.

Under the minibottle law, which requires liquors in South Carolina restaurants and bars be sold in 1.75-ounce bottles, the bottle’s entire contents must be poured into a drink. That leaves little room for mixed-drink creativity, the splash of this, splash of that, eyeball-measured artistry skilled bartenders enjoy demonstrating.

“Free-pouring is how bartenders build their reputations,” says Rodecap.

Local bartenders with reputations for mixing great drinks will rise from the rest of the bartending pack and attract customers, says Tom Lennon, McCrady’s assistant general manager and a former New York bartender.

This will lead to restaurants and bars marketing their bartenders along with their signature drinks. That, plus the less expensive drinks big bottles provide, should boost alcohol beverage sales, Lennon says. 

“A bartender that knows the drink recipes and has a dynamic personality is definitely an asset,” claims Marla Krueger, director of the Charlotte Bartending School in North Carolina, one of 26 National Bartenders School affiliates across the United States.  

South Carolina has about 4,860 bartenders earning an average annual salary of $15,010, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s latest figures tallied in November 2003. The national average bartender salary is $16,950. While the legalization of big bottles probably will not lead to an increase in the state’s number of bartenders, it will spark a “rise in professionalism” among bartenders, says Tom Sponseller, president of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina.

That professionalism will come through training, which Sponseller sees as a rising need. Trident Technical College saw the forthcoming need a few years ago when the college, anticipating the end of minibottles, launched its mixology class, says Michael Saboe, hospitality coordinator for the college’s Division of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts.

As part of the college’s continuing education program, the mixology class is taught each semester four nights a week to 16 aspiring bartenders and will expand according to the local hospitality industry’s demand, college spokeswoman Meg Howle says.    

Not only will big bottles enable local bartenders to be more creative in their cocktail recipes, but customers will have a larger variety of drinks to sip. Minibottles carry only limited brands of liquor. For instance, the only brandy that comes in a minibottle is Christian Brothers, says McCrady’s general manager Karen Johnston.

Johnny Aquino, a bartender at Coast restaurant, agrees. “Customers will have a lot more cocktails to choose from. The drinks they get in places like New York they’ll be able to get down here.”

Since minibottles were made the law in 1973, many in the state’s hospitality industry have considered the little bottles a hindrance to the tourist trade. A multi-liquor drink like a White Russian, made with an ounce of vodka and a half-ounce of Kahlua and generally costing about $6 in other states, costs about twice that here and contain 3.4 ounces of alcohol, points out David Miller, owner of the Kickin’ Chicken restaurants and former president of the Greater Charleston Restaurant Association.

Cocktail favorites like a Long Island Iced Tea, which consists of five liquors and contains about two ounces of alcohol, costs about $14 elsewhere but can run nearly $30 in South Carolina and contain 8.5 ounces of alcohol. That’s why some restaurants like McCrady’s don’t serve the beverage, says Johnston.

Big bottles also provide for a brisker business, adds Aquino. “Minibottles are hard to open because you have to peel off the wax tops,” he explains, adding that opening the little bottles can produce calluses. On a busy night, that handful of extra seconds it takes to open a minibottle often impedes the flow of service and tests the customers’ patience. “With big bottles you can make drinks faster and move the business faster.”

The arrival of regular-sized liquor bottles will mean some restaurants and bars will have to renovate their bar space to make room for them, Johnston notes. At McCrady’s, the main bar already is built to accommodate big bottles and a staff of trained mixologists is already in place.

However, when big bottles are legalized the changeover for most restaurants will be gradual, Johnston believes.

“It takes time for people to accept change,” she points out, adding that many bars and restaurants will at first keep their minibottles simply because they are used to them. She says it will be “a few years down the road” before the big bottles take hold.

Dennis Quick covers hospitality and tourism for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.

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