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Margaritas to go are popular offerings during the pandemic Melissa Robbins >> The Entertainer!
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rdering cocktails to go may feel all too familiar to those who have vacationed in cities like New Orleans or Las Vegas, where it’s not only normal, but celebrated. However, for states like Arizona, togo alcohol services were often limited to drive-thrus at neighborhood liquor marts, making the experience feel a little less glamorous and a little more, well, like a trip to the local liquor mart. Every day that Arizonans stay isolated pushes the population into unforeseen territory, as many industries scramble to innovate in response to COVID-19 restrictions. The food and alcohol industry, one of the nation’s remaining bastions of normalcy, may be one of the most notable examples of that.
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“It’s been a rough road,” says Adam Rivera, co-owner of Los Sombreros. “From the first weeks that we closed down … we laid off about 60 employees. So just letting go of our families, it’s tough.” Many venues that once didn’t bother delivering even through third-party apps like Uber Eats and Postmates now offer their own takeout, drive-thru and pickup options to combat nationwide stay-at-home orders. While some may relish at the opportunity to order their favorite meal to their door, Valley restaurants and bars are clamoring to finally answer a call they’ve heard for years prior to quarantine: curbside cocktails. “Guests have been asking for our margaritas to go for years, so we figured it’d be the best thing to do,” says Ashley Negron, director of operations and brand management for Macayo’s Mexican Restaurants. “Before we were able to sell margaritas to go, our guests actually would buy gallons of our sweet and sour … and then get the tequila from a store somewhere and make our margaritas at home,” she said. Prior to Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive order, Arizona establishments had to apply for a separate license to deliver alcohol locally. Ducey changed that rule, however, as part of the government’s efforts to help keep local businesses afloat while the order is in effect. Many Arizona bars, like Killer Whale Sex Club in Phoenix, now offer premixed cocktails online in up to six-person servings. Restaurants, too, like
Hula’s Modern Tiki in Phoenix and Scottsdale, now sell their signature drinks bottled to go. Many Mexican restaurants, like Macayo’s (with locations around the Valley) and Los Sombreros (in Scottsdale and Phoenix), tout bulk house margaritas. Rivera says prior to the lockdowns, margaritas were always a top seller. “Even when we were open for full business, that Steve-A-Rita … it’s definitely our No. 1 seller,” he says. “So, it was just very easy for us to come up with, ‘Hey, you know what? We know people love our margarita.’” That hunch panned out, as the mixes appear to be a smash hit with locals. Negron said Macayo’s has sold over 5,000 margaritas in the month since it started offering them for delivery. “We are an industry that has struggled a lot and been hit like many others,” she says. “But the support and encouragement has been really, really helpful.” While Negron says Macayo’s got lucky finding empty, unlabeled bottles ready for margarita storage, Rivera said Los Sombreros had to take things a little more steadily with packaging its SteveA-Ritas. The work was worth it, though, to bring some stability to those who need it. “Now that we’re open for online orders and having about 20 employees
with both locations, it just feels good to start bringing some of our people back,” Rivera says. It’s also been a pleasure, he says, to watch customers realize they even have the option of ordering alcohol at the drive-thru. Along with the SteveA-Ritas, Los Sombreros also offers customers mimosas, bottles of wine, and variety packs of Mexican beer. Negron and Rivera say the restaurants hope to continue offering delivery and to-go menus after the stay-at-home order is lifted, though the reimplementation of the old liquor license laws may prevent them from doing that. For Macayo’s, that means going back to selling margaritas at its only location with a license for it, in Mesa. Rivera said he thinks the coronavirus outbreak has changed the service industry for good. “We’ve been playing it day by day and week by week, but I think that it’s going to change,” he says. “It’s not going to just reopen how it was before. I think it’s going to take some time.” In fact, he says, this may be what motivates Los Sombreros to apply for a liquor delivery license once the restaurants are allowed to reopen. Maybe, by that point, Arizonans will be too acclimated to margaritas on demand to ever go back to sipping them at the bar.
