A Breakdown Of How Much Money Was Spent On Booze At The Top Bars, Clubs, Restaurants, Venues And Hotels Within Dallas Proper In January And February ’21.

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.

Thanks to the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic — maybe you’ve heard of it? — it’s been a rough last 12 months as far as Dallas bar economics goes.

We’ve already known this, of course. A few weeks back, we took a zoomed-out look at the entirety of last year’s bar sales in Dallas proper and found 2020 to be — far and away — the worst-performing bar sales year in the city since we started keeping tabs of these figures in 2015.

Sure, at first blush, the cumulative $478,620,592 worth of booze sold at bars, clubs, restaurants, venues and hotels in Dallas during a pandemic-addled 2020 may sound impressive, but it barely adds up to half of the $923,753,798 worth of booze the city sold in 2019.

Things have somewhat stabilized these last few months, though. Since about September 2020, Dallas has consistently sold between $35M and $55M worth of booze each month — which might not be much, but is at least predictable. The first two months of 2021 follow suit in this regard, with January and February respectively accounting for $52.6M and $44.1M worth of monthly Dallas alcohol sales to kick the year off.

These opening-month figures are, of course, a far cry from the $73.9M and $77.6M sold in the city during the same months a year prior — but those months, as you no doubt recall, were the last full months of regular, Before Times bar activity in the state before pandemic-related regulations forced closures of our beloved watering holes in March of 2020.

For better or worse, though, there’s hope on the horizon. Almost exactly a year to the date after closing bars across the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in March that all businesses statewide could go back to operating at 100 percent-capacity for the first time in a year.

Does that mean March 2021’s bar sales figures should be closer to annual expectations than these last few months have been? Almost certainly, although we’ll have to wait until the end of this month for last month’s figures to be fully reported — per usual.

In the meantime, take a look below at the top 20 alcohol-selling establishments in Dallas proper for January and February of this year. As you do, ask yourself the question we’ve been pondering: What are the odds that Bottled Blonde recorded the exact same sales in January that it did in February — down to the dollar, even — while taking the top slot in each of these months?

Surely that’s just a coincidence… right?

January 2021: $52,669,946

BOTTLED BLONDE- THE BACK YARD: $701,990
DFB CAPITAL LLC (Katy Trail Ice House): $609,889
HAPPIEST HOUR, LLC: $574,792
NICK & SAM’S STEAK & FISH HOUSE: $498,026
VIDORRA ADDISON: $428,040
VIDORRA: $406,208
ROUNDUP SALOON: $387,074
MOXIE’S GRILL & BAR: $385,315
VIRGIN HOTELS DALLAS: $381,577
BUCK’S CABARET: $380,017
BIERNAT’S RESTAURANT: $373,918
SIDECAR SOCIAL: $345,609
STIRR: $344,110
BOMBSHELLS: $332,248
PARADISO/BOTANIST/GOOD COMPANIONS: $332,203
JAVIER’S RESTAURANT: $331,477
BABY DOLLS TOPLESS SALOON: $328,622
COWBOY’S RED RIVER: $320,654
DD BEVCO, LLC (AT&T Discovery District): $320,411
STIRR ADDISON: $315,578

February 2021: $44,162,550

BOTTLED BLONDE- THE BACK YARD: $701,990
HAPPIEST HOUR, LLC: $458,904
VIRGIN HOTELS DALLAS: $413,800
DFB CAPITAL LLC (Katy Trail Ice House): $401,992
NICK & SAM’S STEAK & FISH HOUSE: $391,537
VIDORRA: $332,592
BIERNAT’S RESTAURANT: $325,507
VIDORRA ADDISON: $323,458
HOSPITALITY INTERNATIONAL INC (The Ritz-Carlton): $313,382
BUCK’S CABARET: $306,292
MOXIE’S GRILL & BAR: $297,736
ROUNDUP SALOON: $293,011
BABY DOLLS TOPLESS SALOON: $289,549
EPIC ABS LLC (Statler Hotel): $288,169
JAVIER’S RESTAURANT: $287,154
SIDECAR SOCIAL: $278,927
STIRR: $274,669
DD BEVCO, LLC (AT&T Discovery District): $245,540
BOMBSHELLS: $240,577
HILLSTONE: $238,730

Cheers, we guess?

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