At Salpicon in Chicago, spirit-seeking customers can choose from a wide variety of brands when ordering their pre-dinner cocktails–as long as they’re ordering tequila, that is. Because besides a few brandies, at Salpicon, when it comes to spirits, it’s tequila or it’s nothing at all.
Salpicon’s all-tequila, all-the-time policy may be an anomaly, but at bars and restaurants around the country, operators are quickly adapting to an undeniable change in American drinking habits; an unquenchable thirst for tequila. Those changing consumption patterns are sending ripples through bar and restaurant beverage operations, altering inventories, marketing and promotion campaigns and even bar design.
Tequila has become one of the shining stars in the sprits business. According to Adams Media Handbook Advance 1998, tequila consumption was up in 1997 with almost all leading brands showing increases. Total tequila consumption was up 6.8%, with a number of high-image brands, including Jose Cuervo, Sauza and Patr