I drink for a living. Seriously, my job is to keep people informed about the best bars/breweries/dive joints in town and where they can get the finest cocktail or the freshest beer.
In more carefree (read: younger) days, I¡¯ve commuted to Gurgaon and bought liquor from the wine shops that operate late night. And yes, I am guilty of swigging a beer while I sat in the backseat during a long road trip, but I also roll my eyes at hooligans who treat their cars as open bars.
When liquor shops were shut down across major North India highways last year, I agreed that driving - while drunk - on connecting roadways needs to be banned, because like so many others, I¡¯ve lost family members to drunk drivers and mishaps with trucks.
So mine or for that matter anyone else¡¯s opposition to the Supreme Court order penalising hotels and bars located 500 metres from national highways is not because we are frivolous boozehounds. It¡¯s because this notice defies logic!
BCCL
Enough numbers have been thrown around over the weekend since the order came into effect on April 1. Not only will the millions of hospitality service personnel lose their jobs, a blanket ban will directly affect revenues and even tourism in all forms.
Five stars ¨C the primary bastion for high-end tourists ¨C like The Oberoi and Trident spent the weekend emptying mini bars in rooms, shutting down cellars and cancelling private events while having to explain to foreign guests what was going on.
BCCL
In a year, when the entire F&B community has already grappled with increased excise duty, stricter licensing terms and even the discretionary service charge debate, this latest order couldn¡¯t have come at a worse time.
Every bar owner I spoke to, big or small, agrees measures need to be taken, but no one will go on record to ask the obvious question ¨C when the original issue started with shutting down vendors on highways, how did hotels and restaurants become a part of the deal as well?
BCCL
Until yesterday evening, there was no clarity on how the distance was being measured, though while I type this, there¡¯s some relief courtesy the Haryana excise department stating they will use motorable distance as a benchmark to decide a bar's distance from the highway.
An exercise they will begin on Wednesday (April 5). That has done nothing to appease the concerns of the already worried restaurateur. Pushpendra Yadav, owner of Quaff in Cyber Hub, confirmed that excise officials came to every venue to make note of the stock, asked them to remove bottles from the display and halt service until further notice.
BCCL
The usually packed neighbourhood bore a deserted look on Sunday with bars like Soi 7 that had never allowed children into their premises resorting to taking on family tables just to generate revenue. On the other hand, various hotel staff claimed no one has received an official copy of the SC judgment or an order to cease service, while several bars and restaurants have voluntarily sealed their inventories and stopped service.
BCCL
Industry-first bodies like the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) as well as WTTC, FHRAI and HRAH are crusading against this ban together, but authorities across Delhi NCR have been quiet, unlike their counterparts in Karnataka and Maharashtra who¡¯ve already declared the intent to de-notify highways wherever this problem occurs.
The easiest retort from the pro-ban lobby is ¡°we want the government to prevent road accidents and drunk driving cases,¡± but no one has asked the people most affected by this ruling as to what they are willing to do.
No restaurateur will shy away from more stringent checks and methods to prevent a patron who has over-indulged from getting behind the wheel. In fact, on a Times Now debate last night, everyone from AD Singh of the Olive group to Zorawar Kalra of Massive Hospitality echoed a willingness to be more accountable.?
BCCL
Zorawar (owner of Farzi Caf¨¦, Made In Punjab and Masala Library) agrees that the responsibility lies on both sides ¨C the law and authorities as well as the restaurants. His solution is one that the industry is willing to implement ¨C start training the staff and bartenders, like they do in Europe and other countries, to analyse guests who are too drunk and unable to effectively command a vehicle.
¡°Restaurants should use better judgment when serving customers who are intoxicated to a level that may cause harm to themselves and others.Secondly, wherever there are have valet services, the restaurant and serving staff should be trained to ensure that highly inebriated customers are not allowed to drive home and instead call for a cab service to help them reach home safely.¡±
BCCL
Hotels already claim to be following both these practices including having a fleet of chauffeur driven cars available for any patron who needs it, but if the recent incident from another bar in Cyber Hub is any indication ¨C Indians don¡¯t like being told when we¡¯ve had enough to drink. So, who exactly is to be blamed here?