Sourland Mountain’s Sage and Ray Disch
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JULY 2020
bottles until his current supply dwindles. The decade-old distillery is located in a town of 4,000 residents that swells during the summer months with tourists visiting nearby Glacier National Park. Now, with restrictions in place by the state government that does not allow for seating at the bar and only 50% capacity in the tasting room, Spencer is trying to figure out how to keep business going with diminished capacity until the distribution channels open up again. At Sourland Mountain Spirits in Hopewell, New Jersey, founder and owner Ray Disch says “95% of business evaporated overnight” when the pandemic started. Like hundreds of distilleries, Sourland pivoted to making hand sanitizer, says distiller Sage Disch. Early batches went to first responders and medical facilities but as production has ramped up it is now being sold to customers. Sourland has also benefited from proximity to its neighbors. The distillery is just steps from Troon Brewing, a popular brewery with fiercely loyal fans who come out for every single beer release, even in a pandemic. So, it set up a small bar outside and has been offering bottle sales. The distillery found that colored spirits, like whiskey, rum, even a barrel-aged gin are selling well. “No one is buying vodka,” Ray Disch says. For collectors and bottle hunters there has been an upside to the pandemic, even as it comes at the misfortune of restaurants. At the Jack Rose Dining Saloon in Washington, D.C., the extensive bottle list that had made it famous are now a lifeboat. The restaurant is now open two days per week and is selling bottles from its inventory— some very rare—to customers and collectors, says owner Bill Thomas. “Every time we open the doors, we’re busy,” he says. “Then it takes me two days to reassess, look at our inventory, see what we can get in, what we have squirreled away and what we can do to get people to come back next time.” Thomas says he has been considering putting his house on the market to help keep the restaurant afloat and is unsure what the future will look like with social distancing measures becoming more normal. “Everyone needs to be rethinking their business plan and model right now,” he says. “Our business is going to be a hybrid model, with carry-out, delivery and of course whatever social distancing we can do, but we can’t just be a dine-in anymore. We need to be a little bit of everything.” ■
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