DW8 Growth, page-9326

Sommelier Penny Vine is struggling to keep up with the demand for low and no-alcohol drinks at leading Melbourne restaurant Cutler & Co. Particularly since the pandemic hit.

Over the past two troubled years, according to Vine, diners have developed an insatiable thirst for booze-free drinking options.“We put our first list of low- and no-alcohol drinks together in 2013,” she says.

“For the first six years, we had slow but steady growth in interest.

But that completely changed in 2020: even though we were closed for seven months, we sold almost as much as we had the whole of the previous year.

“And in the first six months of this year, when we’ve only been open four days a week [because of lockdowns and restrictions], we’ve already doubled what we sold in 2020. That’s huge.”

https://www.afr. .com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/why-australians-can-t-get-enough-of-booze-free-drinks-in-the-pandemic-20210623-p583n1