Crave Hospitality Group’s three Charleston-area restaurants — Crave Kitchen & Cocktails, Mill Street Tavern and Woodward Tavern — will shift its bar programs to offer “90% local liquor,” Crave owner Peter Woodman told the City Paper. Each establishment is in the process of stocking up on local brands, changing cocktail names and adding local beers, Woodman said.
“We’re all small businesses, and they had the same struggles that we had. We need to look after our own backyard,” he said.
Look for local spirits from High Wire Distilling, Nippitaty Distillery, Firefly Distillery, Charleston Distilling Co. and more. Select national brands will be available, but bottles of Jack Daniels and Ketel One will be few and far between. Woodman, who said he wished he had shifted to all-local liquor sooner, has been pleased with the customer response since implementing the new system.
“The products are in my opinion better than the name brand products,” he said. “I think for me it’s important that we display the local products as well because a lot of people don’t know it’s local.”
Woodward Tavern will also add 25-30 local beers to its bar by the end of the month, Woodman said.
Nippitaty Distillery owner Traxler Littlejohn is thankful for Woodman’s efforts and hopes more Charleston restaurants will feature local products “on the other side of the bar.”
“If you go to France and ask for a bottle of American wine, they’re going to look at you like you’re crazy,” Littlejohn said. “If people are going to come and visit Charleston, give them the full experience by allowing them to taste our cuisine as well as our libations.”
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