Get Y Your Drink On Take advantage of the finer things at Liquor City. words by Vivian Whitney illustration by Jordan Schechter
ou might not be able to tell based on the liquor shelves in our run-down student housing or the Four Loko Gold tucked away in our dingy Flint Hall mini-fridges, but we’re entering a new era of drinks. You may be surprised to find that there’s a whole ever-changing alcohol industry outside of Skytop Liquors, Orange Hill, and the corner store, but it’s true. Take it from Torrey Michael Grant, a full-time adjunct instructor of Beer and Wine Appreciation at Syracuse University and a fine wine coordinator at Liquor City. If you’ve taken his beer and wine course, you know he knows what’s up. So, pour yourself a mug of Franzia or crack open a lukewarm Natty Lite, and delve into the new era of drinks with us. And for those of us who aren’t drinking alcohol for whatever reason, we didn’t forget about you. Treat yourself to a virgin rum and coke on us. As you probably could have guessed in your sleep, the pandemic really flipped the alcohol industry upside down. When lockdown orders started rolling out last March, on-premise consumption of alcohol — drinking at restaurants, bars, clubs, concert halls — dropped to almost 0%. “Off-premise or retail, which I spend my days at, went through the roof. I mean, just crazy through the roof,” Grant said. “We saw lines out the door every day.” Because people were now drinking almost entirely at home, they started buying alcohol in ways the industry had never seen before. Boxed wine was the first shortage that Grant’s Liquor City, along with the industry as a whole, saw. As