Whiskey Bars Are Selling Off Their Collections To Stay In Business
back bar at the Silver Dollar, photo by Maggie Kimberl
Louisville’s The Silver Dollar is the latest to unload its rare whiskey to raise money for operations
As COVID-19 continues to close down businesses and force people into their homes, the bar community is suffering. Legendary bars like Jack Rose in Washington, DC have started selling off inventory to keep their staff in paychecks. In Louisville, Kentucky, the epicenter of the Bourbon Industry, The Silver Dollar and its sister bar, The Pearl of Germantown, are in the same boat. They’re selling off a decade’s worth of private barrel selections and other vintage bottles in order to ensure employees have a job to come back to when this is all over.
“We have a really large inventory that we’ve grown over the last ten years,” says Proprietor Larry Rice. “I’ve done the opposite of what most bars do and I’ve tried to grow my inventory and not deplete it every week. We have single barrels and vintage releases. We gave ourselves a lot of parameters like only straight whiskey and only from Kentucky. I’ve always said that I won’t have the biggest list but I will have one of the best curated lists.”
It hurts Rice to let such a large portion of his inventory go, but he recognizes the need and what he’s accomplishing by doing so. Among the bottles he’s offering up for sale are many of his story picks, like two different private Knob Creek bottlings at 11 and 12 years, respectively; a couple of Old Forester barrel picks; a Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve barrel pick; a New Riff private selection and more. Of the rare bottles being offered are Four Roses Limited Editions, discontinued Ancient Age, several different Weller offerings from Buffalo Trace, and more.
“It’s tough times right now,” says Rice. “We’re just hoping to survive and I’m going to eat into that inventory now. A lot of our vendors and our mortgage company have been incredible in extending deadlines, but we’re going to have to pay that eventually. We’re hoping that the day they tell us we can reopen our restaurants it’s not over. We’re going to have to dig ourselves out, and I’m using the Queen’s ‘We’ there—all bars and restaurants.”
He explains that even in the best of times, it’s challenging to keep the lights on. “Bars and restaurants run on thin margins as it is, and we’re trying to not be so far in debt that it’s not sustainable. I feel super fortunate that I’m able to give myself a chance.”
How to go about the sale, safely
When the announcement was first made that restaurants and bars would need to close, Rice reached out to bourbon collectors to gauge interest. He also gathered ideas for how to make it work, and the best ways to keep everyone safe in the process. “We opened up to a local group called The Louisville Bourbon Hounds by appointment only because as much as we want to survive we also don’t want to be part of the problem,” he says.
“We’re allowing six people every half an hour and we’re sanitizing the sales surface and all the equipment between every guest. We’re insisting that they stay six feet apart and we’re only allowing two people at the counter at a time. They’re about ten feet apart, then two other people waiting inside six feet apart and then everyone else waits outside six feet apart. You can’t come in without an appointment because then we’re part of the problem.”
Rice’s approach also means that people don’t have to wait long and that there’s no issue with line order, which makes crowd control a non-issue. “I did Saturday through Thursday, and so far we’ve filled all 84 daily appointments from Saturday through Tuesday,” he says of his signup list. “We’re eating into our single barrels mainly, that’s something we can’t replace, but at least all of that is staying in Louisville. It’s bittersweet. I’m fortunate that I have those assets to give myself a chance to survive, but I also spent ten years building those assets up and I had intended them to be sold by the pour.”
With hardship comes hope
Still, Rice understands this is just a new challenge. He started the business and grew it, and it can be done again. “Someone posted a photo the other day of that first year we opened The Silver Dollar,” he reminisces. “When we opened it up it was one third the size it is now with nothing on the bar top underneath it. I was really proud of that bar and the list we curated on the day that it opened.”
Renewed optimism also teaches better business sense. “As sad as it was to see and think of it that way, it also gave me a little bit of hope in the sense that we did that before, and maybe this gluttonous amount of whiskey we’ve been offering the last few years was a little unnecessary. A lot of what we do is about the experience and how you feel when you are in there and the connections you make with the staff and other patrons. I think people are going to appreciate that more when we get back into business.”
The Silver Dollar has grown over the last nearly decade to become not only a beloved spot for locals, but also a destination for whiskey tourists. “The community response has been incredible,” Rice says.
Taking care of staff
With most of the barrel slots full, a tip line has been set up for his staff. “While we tell people there’s no need to tip for package sales, all the tips go to the staff, and we’re figuring out a way for staff to tell us when they are having an emergency. We’ve raised a considerable amount of money for our staff. Not enough to make up for them being out of work, but enough to help make up for it when they are in an emergency situation. I’m really shocked. People have been amazing with the money they have been contributing to the staff.”
What happens when the doors reopen?
“I hope we’ve got a line out the front door when The Silver Dollar opens back up because we’re going to need it,” he laughs. “I am hopeful. I can’t predict the future. We’re all pretty new to this; no one has been in this situation before. But I think we have a fighting chance. I don’t think that’s true of everyone and I think our landscape in food and dining is going to look very different when this is all said and done.”
Newer establishments may not have as much reason to be optimistic. “The new people - if you’re 18 months old and you have a lot of debt and you don’t have deep pocket investors it’s going to be tough to miss even a week.”
Lack of tourism is going to have a hard impact on Louisville
Because the Kentucky Derby has been pushed back to September this year, the entire hospitality industry in Louisville and surrounding areas is going to take a significant hit, and many will not be able to recover. “Everyone is a little lean in the wintertime around here anyway and you learn to stock up from your summer sales to go into winter and then Derby hits and you catch up again and everything is gravy again,” says Rice. “Well we don’t have that this year, so a lot of people who are depending on that won’t have the same fighting chance that we have. We’re lucky we’ve been established for eight or nine years.”
While Rice is in a good position to weather this out for at least a while, he recognizes he has challenges ahead and he’s ready to face them. “Our vendors have been incredible, but we’ve got to pay them back when this is over,” he says. “As generous as they are being, we still have to have some kind of income coming to give us the best fighting chance when the doors open back up.”
Things could be worse…
The overall message from Rice is that there is a future for The Silver Dollar. “I am hopeful and I do feel very fortunate. I have my emotional moments feeling sad or angry, but I have to remind myself that I’m in a much better spot than some people out there. If we have to rebuild when this is over, I will. We’re all going to have a different perspective on what’s important here in a couple of months.”
A neighborhood bar means a lot to the community, and The Silver Dollar’s community is global. When the doors do reopen after all this is over, it seems that there are favorable odds that its story will be among those of human triumph in the face of overwhelming odds.