Found this awesome little posting in the menu at the Gunnisack Cowboy Bistro and bar in beautiful Gunnison, CO. I don’t live in Colorado, so this may cause some problems for our brother brewers in Colorado, but I think it’s great that even small restaurants are starting to focus not only on small breweries, but also on the business practices of BMC. I just thought it was worth posting, hope the pic is legible:
I agree Frank…I hope more folks stand up like this…
Thanks Glenn. Thought maybe I had broken some taboo as no one had yet replied
I feel that more restaurants/bars/liquor stores need to start to open up to their customers about distributor problems. The distributors are who really control who gets the beer, and if they’re causing problems something needs to be done.
For a long time I’ve suspected that one of the major distributors in my area was responsible for all the old beer that’s on every store shelf down here. After talking to a few folks at NHC it seems that many craft brands starting to realize that there is a problem and change distributors. In the past when I’d mentioned my suspicions to owner of my favorite liquor store he gave an uncharacteristically vague response. Turns out that the distributors control who gets what “good stuff”, and he probably didn’t want the distributor to get pissed and make things worse on him. Are other stores (up closer to DC?) paying the distributor under the table to get the cream of the crop? No idea. But I think that with the recent crap beer merger there’s going to be more of a push to change distribution laws, and any shady dealings will bite these folks in the end.
Doh! I liked it so much I sent the image link directly to a bunch of my co-workers, but I totally forgot to reply. Thanks for posting this!
It’s nice to see retailers calling attention to bad behavior and choosing to do business with distributors that actually add value, rather than those who would bully them into accepting poor service and ridiculous fees just for the privilege of “being an account”.
Well said!