A Look At How Government Mandates Affected Alcohol Sales At Dallas’ Bars, Clubs, Restaurants, Venues And Hotels In September 2020.

Welcome to Bar Raised, our recurring column that proves that Texans like to spend copious amounts of their income participating in the Great American Pastime. We know this because the Texas Comptroller keeps tabs on that sort of thing and makes all that info public record. Any establishment in the state that holds a Mixed Beverage license must report all sales revenue generated from the sale of liquor, beer and wine at their establishments on a monthly basis. The comptroller, in turn, puts all that info into a conveniently navigable database. And then we break down Dallas’ numbers for you here.

As we predicted last month, September indeed marked something of a bounce-back for a pandemic-ravaged Dallas bar industry.

The amendment to Rule 33.5, issued August 25, relaxed the rules for obtaining a food certificate licenses, allowing more bars to qualify as restaurants, setting up the landscape for September. With more places opening their doors, September’s spending spiked to $47.8 million — a hefty increase in comparison to August’s $31.3 million and the biggest monthly figure Dallas has seen since February 2020. Still, it’s a significant drop from the $76 million of booze sales reported in September of last year.

But it might be a sign of things heading in the right direction just the same. Following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announcing on October 7 his intention to allow bars to reopen at diminished capacities even without food licenses, we feel confident in predicting this upward trend to continue into October’s numbers when they’re released at the end of next month.

Cooler weather should help matters too: Year in and year out, October sees sales spikes for this very reason; in an era when patio seating is your safest bet for having a beer, that feels more important than ever.

As for September, though, the open-aired Katy Trail Ice House tops this month’s charts with a cool $1.2 million in booze sales, which accounts for almost double the $655,192 in sales that were racked up at the second place-finishing Virgin Hotel.

How’d other spots fare for the month? Scroll down to see.

Dallas Establishments With Top Gross Alcohol Sales For September 2020:

1.  DFB CAPITAL LLC (Katy Trail Ice House): $1,235,914
2. VIRGIN HOTELS DALLAS: $655,192
3. DD BEVCO, LLC (AT&T Discovery District): $523,993
4. NICK & SAM’S STEAK & FISH HOUSE: $443,557
5. MOXIE’S GRILL & BAR: $440,308
6. BOMBSHELLS: $418,281
7. SIDECAR SOCIAL: $404,202
8. VIDORRA: $351,982
9. JACK AND GINGER’S/77 DEGREES: $349,976
10. OJOS LOCOS SPORTS CANTINA: $343,843
11. STIRR ADDISON: $334,243
12. BOTTLED BLONDE – THE BACK YARD: $323,092
13. BUCK’S CABARET: $320,877
14. EPIC ABS LLC (The Statler): $315,409
15. THE RUSTIC: $313,843
16. BIERNAT’S RESTAURANT: $300,099
17. HOSPITALITY INTERNATIONAL INC (Ritz-Carlton): $297,931
18. JAVIER’S RESTAURANT: $294,335
19. STIRR: $277,418
20. COWBOY’S RED RIVER: $276,557

Total alcohol sales in Dallas in September 2020: $47,818,525
August 2020 total: $31,287,451

No more articles