A Look At How The Still-Ongoing Pandemic Affected Alcohol Sales At Dallas’ Top Bars, Clubs, Restaurants, Venues And Hotels In December 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.

It looks like Dallas ended 2020 on a (relatively) strong, boozy note as bar sales within city limits for the month of December clocked in at $48 million — a $13 million jump from November.

That’s a welcome bump, considering how the still-ongoing pandemic presented so many challenges and showed no mercy toward the service industry last year.

Still, it should be noted that December’s sales from 2020 still look pretty scrawny in comparison to 2019’s numbers from the same stretch, which totaled out to around $82 million.

So, what contributed to this?

Well, the CDC held a telebriefing ahead of the holiday season to advise folks to avoid traveling and spending the holidays in large groups. We’d like to think that folks adhered to this strong suggestion — or, at the very least, celebrated the holidays by boozing up at home with only their immediate loved ones, roommates or pets. (Pro tip: Spiked eggnog just tastes a little better when you’re drinking it out of your favorite childhood cup.) Furthermore, the beginning of December also marked the month in which restaurant capacities were reduced to 50 percent following an October executive order  that would decrease capacities and shut down bars completely should  COVID-19 hospitalizations make up 15 percent of a region’s hospital capacity.

But lower capacities didn’t’ stop people from treating themselves to a holiday steak at Nick & Sam’s, curling up by a heating tower outside on the Katy Trail Ice House patio or hollering at college juniors guzzling vodka-tonics at Happiest Hour during peak football season. All three of these locations managed to place in the top 20 Dallas establishments with the highest grossing sales for the month.

Seem Dallas just can’t seem to stay home!

Now that we’ve wrapped up December, we look forward to recapping this turbulent year in our forthcoming yearly look back at drinking in Dallas, where we’ll compare 2020s annual numbers to the last five years in Dallas drinking. (For now, feel free to take a look back on the last four years here.)

What are your predictions for 2021?

Dallas Establishments With Top Gross Alcohol Sales For December 2020:

  1. NICK & SAM’S: $541,321
    2. DFB CAPITAL LLC (Katy Trail Ice House): $536,407
    3. HAPPIEST HOUR, LLC: $472,946
    4. VIRGIN HOTELS DALLAS: $405,964
    5. BIERNAT’S RESTAURANT: $400,024
    6. BOTTLED BLONDE DALLAS, LLC: $372,854
    7. HOSPITALITY INTERNATIONAL INC (The Ritz-Carlton): $367,193
    8. THE HENRY: $362,336
    9. MOXIE’S GRILL & BAR: $351,484
    10. BUCK’S CABARET: $351,336
    11. JAVIER’S RESTAURANT: $339,547
    12. PARADISO/BOTANIST/GOOD COMPANIONS: $333,619
    13. HILLSTONE: $318,141
    14. EPIC ABS, LLC (Statler Hotel): $315,715
    15. BABY DOLLS TOPLESS SALOON: $306,499
    16. VIDORRA: $305,056
    17. SIDECAR SOCIAL: $302,755
    18. ROUNDUP SALOON: $302,119
    19. THE ADOLPHUS HOTEL: $301,577
    20. DD BEVCO, LLC (AT&T Discovery District): $298,282

Total alcohol sales in Dallas in December 2020: $48,073,995
November 2020 total: $34,967,868

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