Although bars and clubs are closed for the coronavirus pandemic, KC hasn’t quite gone dry and silent. Instead, across town we’ve found social drinking of all stripes has migrated online.
One of the most successful local projects of the quarantine era is the Facebook group Quarantined Beer Chugs, started by Andrew Beile, a bartender at Liberty’s old Rock and Run Brewery.
Rodney Beagle, who now brews for 3Halves in the space, was one of the first to join and started aggressively promoting it—his brewery even makes the group’s official beer, a chuggable wheat. “It went from fifteen people to twenty-thousand in three days!” Beagle says. “Now it’s over three-hundred thousand. We’re giving back to first responders, Northland charities, and the U.S. Bartenders Guild through donations from merch sales.”
It’s not just beer chugs—it’s also wine sips.
Cellar Rat Wine Merchants in the Crossroads has been hosting virtual wine tastings via Facebook Live. Store owner Kevin Hodge hosts the tastings, which customers prepare for by ordering the scheduled drops for curbside pickup. Topics range from an analysis of why wines deteriorate after being opened to food pairings featuring dishes from Antler Room and Nara.
“We want to support them as much as possible,” Hodge says of local restaurants featured in his tastings, “so if they can get it all from the restaurant, then we have done our duty in getting people to go.”
And if you want to drink and sip a daiquiri, tune into the KC Daiquiri Shop’s Facebook page, where they’re hosting a wide variety of DJ sets—some of which are well and truly banging. You can pick up drinks to go from the shop in all sizes and flavors.
