ST. LOUIS — A few months back, owners of 2nd Shift Brewing called the state of Missouri for help on some issues with its taxes.
“We wanted to make sure we were straight and that we were paying everything. We just need a little bit of help,” said co-owner Libby Crider.
What the brewery in the Hill neighborhood didn’t realize at the time was that solving one problem would bring on another.
As part of its pivot due the pandemic, 2nd Shift turned its parking lot into an outdoor taproom. The craft brewer has used a standalone garage and its roll-up door as a walk-up bar for outdoor seated patrons.
That’s something Crider said the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control took notice of while on site helping 2nd Shift with its taxes. The company received a warning on a call this week about the garage setup. Since the garage is a separate building from 2nd Shift’s taproom, it was told it would need a separate liquor license to use that facility to serve alcohol.
“At the tail end of the phone call, the gentleman said ‘by the way, we noticed while we were there that you’re serving beer out of an unlicensed location and we wanted to give you a courtesy notification that if the city finds out, they’ll shut you down. So we recommend you close it right away,’” Crider said.
2nd Shift owners figured the City of St. Louis would have been lenient, at least for the time being, given the pandemic. They decided not to test their luck.
“But honestly with the weather being as terrible as it is right now and business slowing to barely a crawl, we just made the judgement call to just cut the cord,” Crider said.
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