Pour me a drink

Downtown Austin taps into record-setting territory with $40 million in monthly alcohol sales

Westin Austin Downtown pool lounge cocktails

Through the first four months of this year, sales of booze at downtown locations exceeded $131 million.

Photo courtesy of Westin Austin Downtown

In the wake of a pandemic slowdown, the booze and the money are once again flowing in downtown Austin.

Data provided to CultureMap by the Downtown Austin Alliance shows bars, restaurants, and other establishments in the heart of the city sold a little over $40.8 million worth of alcohol in March and $40.75 million in April. Buoyed by a back-in-person SXSW, the March total set a monthly record for downtown Austin, with the April total just shy of that record.

Through the first four months of this year, sales of booze at downtown locations exceeded $131 million. The tally includes beer, wine, and mixed drinks.

The Downtown Austin Alliance compiled the figures using data from the Texas comptroller’s office. The state agency collects taxes paid on alcohol sold throughout the state.

The eye-popping tallies for booze sales this March and April are a vast improvement over the numbers for the same months in 2020 and 2021, during the height of the pandemic.

Last year, for instance, downtown alcohol sales totaled $19.5 million in March and $23.8 million in April. For March 2020, the total approached $11.7 million. But sales plummeted the following month, officially the first full month of the pandemic, to a little over $355,000.

For the same months in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, downtown booze sales shot past $36.3 million in March and exceeded $27.9 million in April.

Dating back to at least 2017, March — the month when Austin hosts SXSW — historically has been the top month for alcohol sales in downtown Austin, according to the alliance’s data analysis.

Jenell Moffett, associate vice president of strategic initiatives at the Downtown Austin Alliance, says this spring’s numbers for alcohol sales in downtown Austin suggest that the tourism sector is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels.

The alcohol sales figures and other data demonstrate “that people are looking to make up for the activities they weren’t able to participate in for the last few years,” Moffett says. “It could also be an indication that there are now even more reasons for people to visit downtown, both locals and tourists, for activities where alcoholic beverages would be involved.”

She cites the recent debut of major venues like the Moody Center on the University of Texas campus and the Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park as a factor in spurring both local residents and tourists to visit downtown Austin.

“Tourism in Austin slowed during the pandemic,” Moffett says, “and we saw a dramatic impact to downtown.”

drinks

Back to the Plow

Homey Austin jam and bake shop closing and returning to farmers market

Confituras/Instagram

Confituras Little Kitchen is closing its brick-and-mortar store, but feeling optimistic about the future.

A famers market find is returning to its natural environment after six years in a brick-and-mortar location. Confituras Little Kitchen, which specializes in locally sourced preserves, is closing its jam and biscuit shop after service on Sunday, December 22. However, it will continue selling goods at the Barton Creek Farmers Market and via retailers.

Confituras announced the change in a newsletter to its customers in December. The letter called the news "bittersweet."

"Although the brick and mortar will no longer be, the good news is that this will be a fresh new start for us – we are bursting with energy and creativity at the thought of being back out in the community where it all started for confituras," it said.

The kitchen is closing because the lease is up, and the team has decided to "give up the chase." The newsletter emphasized the ups-and-downs of business over the past several years — ones that were chaotic for just about any business, let alone a small, fairly niche food operation.

"So much has happened since we decided to open a brick + mortar – a wonderful kickstarter fundraiser, THE PANDEMIC, the AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC, and an ever growing city," the letter says. "We tried so very hard but never really got our footing. We know we are not alone, many small business are in the same boat. We renewed our lease during the pandemic because we were hopeful we could make it work - the changing times had other ideas."

Finally, it shared how customers could keep enjoying Confituras creations:

The Barton Creek Farmers Market is open at 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
A list on confituras.net compiles retailers including Royal Blue Grocery, Farmhouse Delivery, and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.
Jam share and Table22 subscription customers will have more instructions coming soon about picking up their goods in January at the same space, 2129 Goodrich Ave.
Customers may also reach out to inquire about continuing to order meals directly.

The kitchen also hosted frequent events and workshops, but the letter did not address this aspect of the business.

A shorter message shared on Instagram has inspired 63 comments so far, five days later. Customers eulogized the shop for its community feel and providing a sense of regularity during the height of the pandemic thanks to weekend pick-ups.