It looks like Pennsylvania’s bars and restaurants are inching closer to regaining the authority to sell take-out margaritas, screwdrivers, fuzzy navels or any other of a number of mixed drinks. The state House voted 170-31 Thursday to pass a stripped down version of a bill that dropped broader liquor privatization efforts and moved the drinks-to-go effort back to the state Senate for final .
It looks as if Pennsylvania’s bars and restaurants are inching closer to regaining the authority to sell take-out margaritas, screwdrivers, fuzzy navels or any other of a number of mixed drinks. The state House voted 170-31 on Thursday to pass a stripped-down version of a bill that dropped broader liquor
It has been decreed that we may not buy alcohol anywhere – not in a bar, a restaurant, bottle store, tavern, shebeen or a tasting room – until at least 15 February 2021. It’s not a popular decision on the part of the government, and it’s devastating the restaurant and wine industries.
Privately, the black market is thriving and not in a particularly undercover way; WhatsApp groups and websites are openly trading with massively inflated prices (obviously). Restaurants have their liquor licences on the line, so sticking to the rules is their only option.
As consumers, we have some choices: stay at home with our own wine and order in; eat out at an early bird hour without alcohol; or find places that are doing creative and thoughtful pairings.
A collaboration between Malta, Corsica, France and Sydney has resulted in two pioneering drinks. One is already available in Malta and the other, the world’s first pure fig liqueur, will hopefully be on its way soon.
A fig tree in a garden in Siġġiewi planted the seed for Australian company Think Spirits’ Esprit de Figues French luxury liqueur, which is made in Burgundy, and Pampelle, a pioneering ruby red grapefruit aperitif, made in Jarnac in the Charente region. Both are the brainchildren of an Australian with strong Maltese roots.
Patrick Borg, at the age of four, with his father and grandfather in Malta in September 1980.