The Go-Cup, created in New Orleans to keep the bon temps rouller, is now being seen as the potential savior of the city’s shuttered bars and taverns.
T. Cole Newton, owner of the Twelve Mile Limit in mid-city and Domino in Bywater, is circulating a petition to get New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell to allow bars to re-open and serve drinks in go cups as way of saving their businesses.
“It’s something bars can do relatively safely right now and keep some money coming in, which is why you see other cities doing it,” Newton told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.
Newton’s petition hopes to keep bars without the available space for a kitchen to stay in business.
“I’m worried that without even takeout business we’ll see a lot of our neighborhood bars close forever,” he said. “There’s nothing else for them now.”
“There’s no money coming in, and the bills don’t stop.
What are you supposed to do?” said Lost Love Lounge owner Muriel Altikriti. “I don’t like failing at anything, but this was something I couldn’t control.”
Altikriti’s bar has permanently closed due to the pandemic shuttering all the bars in town.
When the bars were allowed to serve drinks in go cups, they were able to stay in business.
Among them, Kelder Summers’ Whiskey and Sticks on Bayou Road.
“We were doing really good with it. People were coming to support us, and we brought a bartender back on,” she said. “We even invested in a daiquiri machine because we could see those being popular for takeout drinks. But the rules changed before we could use it.”
“Honestly, anything would help,” Summers said. “We’re just watching and waiting now."
Newton’s petition comes as City Hall is considering easing some restrictions.
Despite City Hall prohibiting outdoor drinking, it hasn’t stopped people from congregating on Bourbon Street.
Bar owners say they’re being unfairly singled out by the prohibition.
“If the goal is to prevent people gathering, then it’s already failed,” Newton said. “People are still buying drinks and congregating outside. All the ban is doing is making sure they don’t buy them from bars.”