South Austin Restaurants Are Selling To-Go Alcohol to ACL Attendees
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The combination of the Austin City Limits Music Festival’s pedestrian traffic and the new permanent take-away alcohol laws means that restaurants on Barton Springs Roads will set up stalls for alcoholic beverages to take away during the music festival. These include the Italian restaurant Juliet and the Ciderie Austin Eastciders, who set up their stands last weekend and will be serving them again this weekend from Friday, October 8th to Sunday, October 10th.
The city and festival organizers limit or close traffic along Barton Springs Road, which leads to the gates of the Zilker Park Festival. That means a steady stream of people along the street for six days (the festival takes place on two long weekends).
“Over the past few years we’ve seen several people walking down the street with drinks from corner shops and gas stations,” said Justin Rouhier, general manager of Juliet’s Barton Springs location.
Emily Murphey, Assistant General Manager at Austin Eastciders, confirms that feeling: “There are so many people who go to the festival looking for refreshments before rushing to their first show.”
And now that take-away alcohol is legal under a permanent state law, restaurants are allowed to sell sealed take-away alcoholic beverages, giving these businesses an additional and much-needed quick source of income.
Juliet’s offerings include beer cans from Austin brewery Zilker Brewing and Montana beer company Montucky Cold Snacks, wine cans from Washington winery 14 Hands Wine (which is also served on the festival site), and tequila-based canned cocktails from Cazadores. Austin Eastciders’s sells its full range of ciders, as well as cocktails and non-alcoholic options.
“The sale was better than expected,” says Rouhier. Murphey notes that “the to-go station gave the business a nice extra boost.”
Both stands will be back in operation on the second ACL weekend. Julia’s lessons take place on Fridays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday again from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Austin Eastciders is open from 11am to 8pm, Friday through Sunday.
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