|
www.IowaABD.com |
Lynn M. Walding, Administrator |
|
|
e - NEWS |
|
August 1, 2003 |
|
1. Suddenly
Chi-Chi: The New Upscale Rums
2.
Diageo Reacts to Warning Signs
3. Liquor License
Holds up Fieldhouse Opening
4. New World Brands
Begins Bottling Their New Ready to Drink Cocktails
5.
Supreme Court Refuses to Rehear Liquor
Liability Case
6. Busted Bars Suing
Underage Drinkers
RENO - Until recently, what most people knew
about rum could be stuffed into a dead man’s chest with plenty of room left
for a pirate’s yo-ho-hos. But that is changing as rum, once a bit player on
the cocktail circuit, is assuming center stage at the bottom of a snifter.
The beverage, which achieved much of its current fame
when paired with its sidekick Coke, is going solo thanks to the emergence of
the fine aged variety of the spirit.
At the Bahama Breeze chain of restaurants, there are 29
rums available, from the everyday (Bacardi) to the premium (Mount Gay and
Appleton Estate, fine aged rums). Given Bahama Breeze’s tropical theme and the
fact that rum originated in the Caribbean hundreds of years ago, rum’s
popularity is not surprising, says manager Mark Setterington at a Phoenix
franchise of the restaurant.
“Rum flies off the shelves,” he says. “It’s very
popular now.”
Rum is the latest hard liquor to achieve barroom
stardom, following single malt scotch, single barrel whiskey and fine aged
tequila into the VIP area.
Not bad for a drink that was once to pirates what
Gatorade is to athletes. For much of its history, rum had been considered the
rot-gut of the seven seas, distilled since the 17th century when it was found
that molasses (a byproduct of the sugar industry) fermented when left in the
sun.
Its shelf life was beyond that of beer and bread,
making it a popular post-pillaging beverage on pirate ships, though it was a
staple on most long voyages.
Starring solo
But rum is shedding its reputation as the shortest
distance between sobriety and drunkenness. The finer rums, some old enough to
drink themselves, are designed to be sipped solo, not blended into a pina
colada, says wine and spirits salesman Mike Fine.
“People are more discerning, more knowledgeable,”
Fine says. “They drink to enhance their experience, not to get drunk. They want
quality, and those who make rum are catching on to that and are finally
offering a premium product.”
Rum selections ranges from Bacardi at $12 a bottle to
Appleton Estate or Cruzan rum retailing for $70 to $80 a bottle. Some rums,
says Fine, can go up to $250 a bottle.
The key to a fine rum is in the aging, Fine says. Oak
barrels are the preferred method, with some rums aging 21 years before being
bottled.
But this doesn’t mean the fun has gone out of rum. At
The Drift, a Polynesian restaurant and lounge in Scottsdale, Ariz., rum drinks
are dressed up with umbrellas and pineapple spears. One rum-spiked concoction,
the hoti, is served in a ceramic Buddha.
“We wanted to bring the fun and cheesiness back to
it,” says Drift owner Brian Chittenden. “We do a hell of a lot of business in
rum. There’s a resurgence because rum drinks are very tasty and you can drink
them all night.”
Just look out for the alcoholic content. Some rums
are 151 proof (that’s 75.5 percent alcohol).
2. Diageo Reacts to Warning
Signs With
Health-Conscious Advertising Campaign as Alcohol Abusers Sue Industry
By Ian Fraser – Sunday Herald
July 27, 2003
Drinks
manufacturers may be drinking in the last-chance saloon as governments
round the world weigh up whether or not to insist that their bottles and cans
bear health warnings – as they have done in the US for a decade – and whether
their advertising needs to be reined in, or even banned.
Until now the drinks business has
got off remarkably lightly compared with its tobacco and fatty-food producing
counterparts, particularly in the UK. This is despite evidence to suggest its
products cause dependency and, when drunk to excess, can be harmful to more
than your health.
But the UK drinks industry may be
next in line to see its freedoms curtailed (in the advertising and promotional
sense). If so, it is going to have to become accustomed to the creeping restrictions
that have affected the tobacco industry for decades.
Last week a group of 12 Scottish
alcoholics aged 18 to 60 revealed they are planning to start legal action at
the Court of Session in Edinburgh next month in what would be the first case of
its kind in the UK. They will claim their lives have been ruined because of
their addiction to alcohol and that the multi-million pound industry is to
blame for failing to warn of the risks.
Jim Price, of Glasgow-based Ross
Harper Solicitors, which is handling the action, said: “Alcohol is now promoted
in the same way that cigarettes were in the 1950s. Manufacturers want us to
believe that drinking alcohol is sexy and trendy. It was a very long time
before cigarette manufacturers started putting health warnings on boxes.”
The chances of the action
succeeding may be slight, but Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits company, is
showing signs it is taking such threats more seriously than competitors.
Two weeks ago, the firm launched a
humorous TV campaign intended to dissuade UK drinkers from over-indulging in
Smirnoff vodka.
The campaign – a first on British
television – has already appeared in the US where it is more common for
responsible drinking messages to be woven into advertising. The advert features
the fictional Hank and Cindy dining out to celebrate their engagement.
The couple are approached by a
friend of Hank’s, who regales them with tales of Hank’s sexual conquests. Cindy
is shocked. The pay-off reads: “Knowing when to stop is a good thing.”
The commercial, by the advertising
agency J Walter Thompson, has been running across the UK and Ireland for the
past two weeks – the height of the holiday season.
This bears the hallmarks of a
pre-emptive strike. But Liz Yonge, head of social responsibility at Diageo,
says: “It was always our plan to launch a campaign for social responsibility.
We’re doing this because we believe it is the right thing to do. It is not in
response to any external pressure.”
Diageo, which is spending £500,000
on the campaign, is determined to be seen as one of the good guys. But the
company, which has its Scottish base at Edinburgh Park, is clearly worried
about repeated allegations that it has played a part in promoting teenage
drinking through alcopops such as Smirnoff Ice and would like policymakers to
believe it cares about alcohol abuse.
“The commercial will hit half the
target age group of 18-35 year olds at least once across the UK,” adds Yonge.
“People in that age group do not listen to lectures and so it is quite
difficult to get an educational message across.”
A second campaign to promote
responsible drinking is being devised for Diageo by another advertising agency,
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, with a budget of more than £2 million.
Until now, alcohol has remained a
much less prominent public health issue than either fatty foods or tobacco.
This has been achieved through the industry’s preparedness to submit to
self-regulation and the success of the Portman Group, the industry-backed
charity that promotes sensible drinking. As a result, the industry has been
able to ward off intrusive regulation .
Jean Coussins, chief executive of
the Portman Group, said: “The majority of people who drink alcohol enjoy it
without causing harm to themselves or others. The Portman Group acts to reduce
the misuse of alcohol by the minority through collaboration with other
organizations locally and nationally.”
But the industry has been unable
to persuade everyone it should be able to continue to proceed in such a
relatively unfettered way.
It has not helped its case by
producing a string of recent ads which explicitly link sexual prowess to
drinking – including one in which a woman has an orgasm at the thought of her
Bacardi Breezer-swigging boyfriend. Then there was the banning of alcopop fcuk
Spirit and the fact that Diageo itself broke a voluntary ban on spirits
advertising on TV with a commercial for Bell’s in September 1995.
Doctors at the British Medical
Association’s annual conference recently stacked up the arguments against the
industry by voting to lobby the government for a total ban on alcohol
advertising. Vivienne Nathanson, head of science at the BMA, said: “We want to
target the inappropriate images that encourage binge drinking.”
The first step would be to halt
advertising on TV, she said, just as tobacco ads were removed from TV screens
in the 1960s before being banned outright last year. But the industry does not
seem likely to give up without a fight.
Hugh Burkitt, chief executive of
the Marketing Society, said: “The industry is now holding its breath to see
what the government’s strategy [due out in September] is going to say. I think
some are beginning to recognize that if they don’t get their house in order,
there will be a clampdown.”
3. Liquor
License Holds up Fieldhouse Opening
By Vanessa Miller – Iowa City
Press-Citizen
July 29, 2003
Sports bar ready to
go, owner says
IOWA CITY - Anyone wanting to catch tonight's Chicago
Cubs game at the renovated Fieldhouse Restaurant & Bar will have to make
alternate plans. While the
28-year-old establishment's reintroduction as an Iowa City entertainment venue
was scheduled for Monday, eager residents will have to wait about one week
until management can obtain a liquor license.
"But we want to get 400 people in here right off the
bat," said Dave Carey, who bought the business May 1 for nearly $200,000.
He signed a 5-year lease that included several options with building co-owner
Neumann Monson PC Architects of Iowa City.
Carey submitted his liquor license application to the
City Clerk's Office on Friday and is waiting for the City Council to schedule a
special meeting to approve it. Carey requested the special session because he
does not want to wait for the next planned council meeting Aug. 19.
"We want to work all the kinks out before school
starts," Carey said. The University of Iowa's fall semester begins Aug.
25. "We just want to get open by mid-August and it looks like we will get
that. But we're not upset that we couldn't open earlier. We want to work 100
percent with the city and the Police Department."
Kwesi Dunston, 29, a UI graduate student, said he
spent more time at The Fieldhouse when he was an undergraduate student, but
might stop by for a game or two this season.
"We just want to go somewhere where it doesn't
smell, it has good specials and good food," Dunston said. "I've got a
bunch of friends who are Cubs fans so they might like that."
Carey said all 75 new employees went through training
last Thursday and will participate in the free alcohol training that state
officials are offering all local bar employees beginning Monday.
Matthew Cisco, 30, of Iowa City, said he is wary of
the need for another downtown bar.
"It seems like there are plenty of bars that
have the same atmosphere as it does," he said. But Dunston said he expects
The Fieldhouse's history to work as an asset.
"The Fieldhouse has a lot of memories," he
said. "And that's never bad."
Before councilors can approve a liquor license, the Department
of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa City Police Department and the Johnson
County Attorney's Office must review the application, City Clerk Marian Karr
said. The DCI, which runs a background check on listed management, takes one to
two days, officials said. After the Police Department review, County Attorney
J. Patrick White has up to five working days to review the application.
"But he usually doesn't take that long,"
Karr said. "We're operating right now on the DCI's schedule."
Karr said it is possible officials could complete the
review and councilors could approve the liquor license this week.
"We will be ready by tomorrow so we hope to open
Monday, Aug. 4," Carey said, adding that he hopes to have a full house for
the Aug. 5 Cubs game. "We are 99 percent ready. We just need to get some
tables ready and we need to clean again."
The Fieldhouse, which closed Jan. 5 because of
financial troubles, will be Carey's sixth bar. He owns three Third Base Sports
Bars in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and North Liberty, a second Cedar Rapids bar,
Third on First, and a second Des Moines bar, Vieux Carre.
Carey said the new, Third Base Fieldhouse, packed
with UI sports memorabilia, will extend its athletic loyalties to the Cubs and
Chicago Bears.
"We're going to be a Cub bar, we have a big
portrait of Harry Carey," Carey said, adding that his other bars have
similar themes. "I'm an Illinois boy and we want this to be a big Cub and
Bear hangout."
The 20,000-square-foot establishment at 111 E. College
St., will shift from a restaurant and nightclub to a sports bar, Carey said. He
has added 34 TVs to the previous 11, and will provide drinks along with about
20 sandwiches and 20 appetizers.
4. New World
Brands Begins Bottling Their New Ready to Drink Cocktails, ``Xtreme
Delight''
BUSINESS WIRE
July 29, 2003
MIAMI--New World Brands Inc.
(OTCBB:NWBD) and its wholly owned subsidiary, International Importers Inc.,
today announced that they have received full Government BATF approval of their
Ready To Drink Cocktails. Bottling and distribution will begin immediately. An
advertising campaign will be launched simultaneously with RTD cocktail
shipments.
Allen Salzman, CEO of New World Brands stated: "I am very excited with the
positive results of our target market taste testing. Xtreme Delight package
design, labels and bottles have been carefully selected to appeal to our target
markets." Nearly 100% of the focus group favored real spirit based RTD
cocktails over the most commonly marketed malt flavored RTD beverages (flavored
beer). Xtreme Delight will be sold in four spirit based cocktails, Tequila
Sunrise, Vodka Splash, Margarita and a Cosmopolitan. Bottling will be done by
our strategic partner, Maple Leaf Distillers, Inc. Maple Leaf is one of
Canada's largest and fastest growing distilleries. Mr. Salzman stated that in
addition to the US market he is presently in discussions with several European
distributors.
Mr. Salzman stated that entry into this growing segment of the beverage
industry will bring a significant amount of revenues and profitable business to
New World Brands. Along with our Award Winning Estate Bottled Wines of L.A.
CETTO, New World Brands is rapidly becoming a prominent importer of spirits.
5. Supreme Court Refuses to Rehear Liquor Liability
Case
By Joan Barron - Star-Tribune capital bureau
July 30, 2003
CHEYENNE -- The Wyoming Supreme Court on Thursday
refused to reconsider its decision upholding a law that limits the
responsibility of bartenders and other employees who serve alcohol.
The court, in an order signed by Chief Justice
William U. Hill, rejected the petition for a rehearing filed by the family of
John Greenwalt.
The family sued Ram Restaurant Corporation of
Wyoming, doing business as C.B. & Potts in Cheyenne, a bar and restaurant.
Their lawsuit claimed bar employees on May 13, 1999
continued to serve Quay Sampsell, a 21-year-old airman from F.E. Warren Air
Force Base in Cheyenne, even after he was drunk.
After Sampsell left the bar he ran a red light and
struck a car carrying Greenwalt, 20, and his passenger, Jennifer Rosner, 19.
Both were killed in the crash.
Sampsell had a blood alcohol level of .21 percent, or
more than twice the legal limit. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of
six to 12 years in prison for vehicular manslaughter.
In a 3-2 ruling handed down June 26, the court ruled
constitutional the state law that says a liquor license holder who legally
furnishes liquor to an intoxicated customer is not liable for damages caused by
the customer's intoxication.
The motion for a hearing, filed by the Greenwalt
family's attorney, Jack Speight, cited a state law that makes it illegal to
sell alcohol through drive-up windows to customers who appear drunk.
He argued there was "no rational basis" to
draw a line between selling alcohol to intoxicated drive-up customers and
serving it to drunken bar patrons.
The Supreme Court order denying the petition said only
that the court had examined the files and record and carefully considered the
arguments contained in the brief filed on behalf of the family.
6. Busted Bars Suing Underage Drinkers
By C.
Spencer Beggs - Fox
News
July 29, 2003
When Kate, a 19-year-old University of Notre Dame (search)
freshman, went out with friends for a night of drinking at a local bar called
The Boat Club last January, she had no idea what was in store for her.
Shortly after midnight on Jan. 24, officers from the Indiana
State Excise Police, the Indiana State Police and the local South Bend, Ind.,
police surrounded the two-story nightspot in a surprise raid aimed at cracking
down on underage drinking.
Kate and 212 other underage drinkers were busted in the
sting, and were ordered to appear in court.
The bar was given the option of having its liquor license
revoked or paying a $5,000 fine and selling its liquor permit to a new owner.
Kate entered a pretrial diversion program, paid a $220 fine
and agreed to a one-year probation. Notre Dame also "sentenced" her
to do 40 hours of community service.
At that point, Kate thought her brush with the law was over.
Then things went from bad to worse for Kate, who asked that
her last name not be used. In mid-April, a notice of hearing was pushed under
the door of her dorm room: The Boat Club was suing her and others nabbed in the
raid for $3,000 a piece.
"I was shocked and surprised -- sort of in disbelief --
I didn't think they could do this, I didn't think it was legal," Kate
said.
Surprisingly, it can be legal. Stories like Kate's are
increasingly common, as bars caught serving underage patrons are turning the
tables on their busted clientele, suing for damages they incur from fines and
loss or suspension of liquor licenses.
Bar owners like Mike McNeff, who exclusively owns The Boat
Club's parent company, The Millennium Club (search), can sue their underage
patrons for misrepresentation -- a type of civil fraud -- if they have reasonable
grounds to rely on their claims that they are of legal age.
John Korpita, owner of the Amherst Brewing Company (search)
in Amherst, Mass., successfully sued an underage patron for $3,713 in 1998.
Korpita sued a University of Massachusetts senior after she used two fake IDs
to enter his popular brewpub (search).
When undercover state alcohol investigators discovered the
underage student, Korpita was told that his liquor license could be suspended
for a period of three days or he could pay a $2,500 fine. Korpita opted to pay
the fine, but filed a civil complaint against the student to recoup the loss.
Korpita said that liquor laws, which vary from state to
state but tend to be similar, unfairly place a burden on alcohol retailers who
are legitimately trying to prevent underage drinking. With high-tech fake ID
production techniques that can make a bogus ID almost undistinguishable from a
valid one, underage drinkers need to be held accountable, Korpita said.
"The fines are really horrendous and can even put a
place out of business," Korpita said. "If you're doing the best you
can, they should have some sort of consideration that you're just not blatantly
letting people in underage."
But Joanne Stella, a lawyer retained by the University of New
Hampshire's student government, said alcohol retailers are shirking their legal
and ethical responsibilities when they try to recoup damages from busted
underage customers.
Stella defended three underage students who were sued by a
Durham, N.H., grocery store for damages after the students used fake IDs to
purchase alcohol in two separate cases in 1998 and 2001.
"I think people that are selling liquor feel frustrated
that they should have to do what the law requires you to do to sell
alcohol," Stella said. "If you are going to make money off a
dangerous product, you have to accept the responsibilities that go along with
that. This isn't selling milk and cookies."
Stella said that alcohol retailers feel entitled to damages
because when underage drinkers are busted, the establishment that sold liquor
to them faces fines, loss or suspension of liquor license. The establishment
owners and bartenders can even be arrested on the spot themselves. But Stella
said that the onus should still be on the retailers to prevent underage
drinkers from buying alcohol.
"In the three cases that ended up in a lawsuit, if they
had asked for a second form of ID, none of these kids would have been able to
buy alcohol," Stella said. "The bars and grocery stores and restaurants
don't want to do that -- they make tons of money off of underage
drinkers."
Stella successfully defended the 1998 case involving two
students and settled the 2001 case out of court. But the legal precedent set by
successful lawsuits like Korpita's don't bode well for new cases.
Attorney Ed Sullivan, who is defending 42 of the students in
the complaint by The Millennium Club, said that liquor laws need to be tough on
alcohol retailers so that they don't encourage them to use clientele
accountability as a way to flout the law.
"By shifting that financial burden, it sets up an
incentive for the bar owner to accept unreasonable IDs, let underage students
in, make money off them drinking and then, if they are busted and fined, try to
recoup damages," Sullivan said.
Sullivan has filed a motion to dismiss, which will probably
be heard by a judge in September. South Bend attorney Mitchell Heppenheimer,
who is representing McNeff and The Millennium Club, did not return repeated
phone calls to his office regarding the case.
Kate said that she just wants to get the trial over with,
but is miffed that she's being charged.
"I feel like I made my mistake and I paid for it,"
she said. "I did my hours of service, I learned my lesson. And just because
they were negligent, I don't think I should have to pay."
By Vanessa Miller - Iowa City Press-Citizen
July
31, 2003
IOWA CITY - In preparation for
alcohol training classes that convene Monday, officials with the Iowa City
Police Department and the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division are meeting today
in Ankeny for a test-run of the curriculum.
|
Details |
"This is no different than fifth-grade teachers
getting together before school starts," said Officer Allan Mebus,
community relations director for the Police Department.
Mebus and investigator Chris Akers will represent
Iowa City's law enforcement as instructors in the Training for Intervention
Procedures program, or TIPS. For the past 10 years Mebus, a seasoned TIPS
trainer, has been offering the program to alcohol servers in the area.
"We try to offer training on one day every
month," he said, adding that class sizes range from 10 to 30 students. The
cost for the Iowa City-sponsored TIPS training program was between $35 to $50
per person, Mebus said. "It was $25 for about eight years, but we were
losing money."
While city officials needed money to buy training
manuals and test materials, the upcoming two-year trial program is sponsored by
the state's Alcoholic Beverages Division and paid for with a $15,000 grant from
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
That means bar employees will not have to pay to attend
one of the 20 four-hour sessions offered from Monday through Aug. 15 inside the
Sheraton Hotel, 210 S. Dubuque St.
"A lot of businesses are participating in TIPS
because they can train their employees for nothing," Mebus said. As of
Wednesday, 458 employees from 38 establishments had enrolled in one of the
sessions. Less than two weeks ago, the count was at 180.
"I'm not surprised," Mebus said. "Many
businesses have taken advantage of this program in the past. And this time it's
free."
The training program has the approval of many bar
owners, city officials, law enforcement and members of the Stepping Up project,
a University of Iowa-led coalition against binge drinking. It comes in response
to an Iowa City Council push to curb alcohol abuse.
During their May 6 meeting, councilors approved a law
banning those under age 19 from entering bars after 10 p.m. The law takes
effect Friday.
Councilors initially considered prohibiting everyone
under 21 from entering the establishments, but bar owners, and UI students
persuaded them to lower the age to 19. As part of their proposal, bar owners
suggested adding bar monitors and employee training.
Donny Stalkfleet, owner of the Sports Column, 12 S.
Dubuque St., and Joe's Place, 115 Iowa Ave., said he has sent managers to TIPS
training before and plans to enroll about 55 employees in the upcoming
sessions.
"This is the first time it's been offered in a
blanketed approach to everyone behind the bar," he said. Stalkfleet said
he thinks the program will provide varying levels of benefits to bar employees
depending on their experience. "There are some people out there who do
really need this, so it's a good situation."
Mebus said the curriculum, which is used to train
alcohol servers nationwide, is largely scripted.
"This is a standardized curriculum and that's
what makes it such a great program," he said. "It's a fun class and
it can become a vital part of serving. If you can protect yourself and your
clients, it's a win-win deal."
The training program is divided into three basic
sections, Mebus said.
The first section identifies different levels of
intoxication and the second part teaches intervention strategies.
"The overall idea is to keep from serving
someone under the legal age limit," Mebus said, adding that the training
also will help employees handle legal patrons who have consumed too much.
"It teaches them to slow people down and cut them off."
The third part of the training provides students with
role-playing opportunities.
"Someone plays the bartender and someone plays a
patron," he said. "The idea is for the class to model for the rest of
the class."
Mebus said today's test-run will blend the teaching
styles of the trainers to ensure consistent quality for all the students.
"We've
Iowa Citicized the program," Mebus said. "This is simply so we can
combine presentations."