This downtown Fresno bar tried to follow the rules with to-go cocktails. Now it’s closed
After more than three months of selling to-go cocktails with food, downtown bar Modernist has shut down.
The closure – temporary due to the coronavirus pandemic – came after the City of Fresno’s code enforcement visited the Fulton Street bar, giving notice that it didn’t meet the rules for serving to-go cocktails.
The business had apparently received a complaint.
According to the bar’s tongue-in-cheek Facebook page: “Apparently, someone felt our Michelin-quality to-go meal offering did not meet guidelines and was worth a complaint (thanks! 2nd highest form of flattery?) and so, our to-go operations will be on hiatus for a few weeks.”
If it had tried to stay open, the bar would have faced a $1,000 fine, followed by $5,000 and $10,000 fines.
The bar first opened in January.
When the pandemic first hit, it closed entirely for three weeks.
In April, it started offering to-go cocktails. Although businesses had to close their indoor and outdoor operations at the time, Modernist was operating under rules issued by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) that said they could sell to-go cocktails, as long as they were sold with meals.
All but a couple of the bar’s nine employees came back to work, though they all got fewer hours, said Carmen Serrato, who owns the bar with partner Po Tsai.
They set up an system on the bar’s website, where customers would order and pay for drinks.
Each purchase had to include a $6 meal pack, which typically included a tub of ramen noodles, a snack pack containing crackers, cheese and salami, and a couple of packets of dried fruit and nuts.
At times, the bar also had boxed meals and charcuterie boxes with meat, fruit and cheese available.
Customers pulled their cars up to the curb in front of the bar and called to say they were there. Bartenders brought out a bag containing the margarita or Negroni – packaged in Mason jars or bottles, along with plastic-wrapped garnishes – the food and a bag of ice, and placed it in customers’ trunks.
When sales began to slip, Modernist started selling frozen cocktail pops too.
“We’re a bit bummed,” co-owner Serrato said Thursday, ”just because especially with to-go operations, we were doing all that we could given the current times to stay open and afloat. Our to-go meal wasn’t really harming anyone.”
The couple say they have no ill will toward the city or its workers doing their jobs, but are frustrated at all the changes.
“You’re having to reinvent your business every couple of weeks,” Tsai said. “But changing your business costs money, takes time. Your margins are constantly fluctuating.”
The rules
While some could say Modernist was skirting the rules, the owners said they were following the spirit of the rules. They had communicated with the ABC about what was appropriate.
“In other states you see other people getting away with providing peanuts,” Serrato said. “We actually tried to make sure it was something that was a meal.”
Back in March, the ABC said bars could sell drinks to go, as long as they were sold with food, in sealed containers, and placed in a trunk.
What may have led to Modernist running afoul of regulations so many months later was a clarification the state issued in early July.
Businesses need to offer more than just sandwiches and salads, it said. It further specified that appetizers – chicken wings, cheese sticks or fried calamari, for example – did not meet the requirements of the meal that must be served with drinks.
Nor did snacks like chips, side dishes, or reheated refrigerated or frozen entrees.
Tsai said the city interpreted the food guidelines in a way that “the nature of the food, in their opinion, … was not consistent with the wording of the order.”
“We’re not dealing with black and white, so to a certain extent you’re subject to an authority’s interpretation,” he said. “All you can do is do the best you can.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 2:43 PM.
