COVID-19’s LASTING IMPACT on BARTENDERS
A Firsthand Account WRITTEN BY Justin Koury
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t was December 2019, and most of the wine industry was reporting that 2020 would be sluggish and sales would fall between 2 percent and 9 percent, a devastating number. By contrast, the outlook for distilling spirits, bars, ready-to-drink cocktails, and restaurant trends looked stable, if not promising. Many wine teams were rewriting predictions and preparing to cut staff, cancel imports, and refocus. In January, the United States and the world were instead focused on the threat of COVID-19 and by March, the world was in shambles, along with millions of jobs and shuttered businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic left an indelible mark on many sectors, but few as profoundly affected as the hospitality industry. Among the most brutally hit were bartenders — frontline workers who thrive on social interaction and community engagement. To fully understand the extent of the changes they've faced, we turned to two seasoned industry veterans, Shaun Stewart and H. Joseph Ehrmann. Their insights revealed a story of resilience, adaptation, and the evolution of bartending in a post-pandemic world. While they work on opposite sides of the United States, both were impacted in identical ways and have, like most of the industry, struggled to reclaim what was once a robust sector of the economy.
LAYOFFS and SHUTDOWNS With no customers and no revenue, Ehrmann, better known as H., faced the difficult choice of laying off his staff at Elixir. “When COVID hit, most of us had to lay off our team because we simply couldn’t afford to keep them. It felt devastating to say goodbye to people who had become family,” he reflected. Although the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provided temporary relief, the uncertainty left many bar owners scrambling to find solutions. W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M
Stewart, who was in Nashville then, shared a similar experience. “We went from packed nights to empty rooms,” he remembered. With restrictions limiting capacity to just a fraction of what it used to be, he and his team had to think outside the box. “We could only have 12 people in the bar, and we had to make that work,” he explained. In a desperate attempt to keep their business afloat, Stewart collaborated with a friend in Baltimore to create bottled cocktails, allowing them to serve customers confined at home.
ADAPTATION and INNOVATION The shutdowns forced bartenders across the country to think creatively. As Ehrmann noted, many turned to new ways of reaching customers. “Some people started making cocktails to-go, batching them at home, and delivering them to friends. It was a lifeline,” he recalled. For Ehrmann, selling cocktail kits and whiskey bottles became essential to maintaining his business. “I was able to bring people back to work as delivery drivers or to help pack kits,” he added. This adaptability kept the lights on and fostered a sense of community during isolation. Stewart echoed this sentiment, noting that the pandemic accelerated trends already emerging in the industry. “We focused on quick service — people were used to getting their cocktails fast at home, so we had to adapt,” he explained. The traditional bar experience shifted as customers became accustomed to speed and convenience over presentation and atmosphere. This change challenged bartenders to balance quality with efficiency, a skill that would prove essential during those months.
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