BENGALURU: With the clock ticking for pubs and bars near highways, a pub and two restaurants serving liquor on MG Road have come up with a “stock clearance sale” for alcohol as they won’t be allowed to serve liquor from Saturday.
The pub ‘13th Floor’ and two other restaurants under the same management where liquor is served -- ‘Ebony’ and ‘On the Edge’ -- are having one-plus-one offers on all beers and select wine and hard liquor at all times of the day. The offer was started on Tuesday.
The staffers at the outlets confirmed that the offer was introduced so as to sell as much of the liquor stocks as possible before Saturday. Even the poster stuck at the entrances terms it a “stock clearance sale.”
A staffer at 13th Floor said, “I’ve been working here for 10 years and this is the first time this kind of a discount has been offered. Earlier, we used to have discounts up to only 30 per cent.” A staffer at Ebony restaurant said, “We have a large stock of liquor. We can store hard liquor but we can’t store beer for very long.” According to them, even the offer hasn’t resulted in any marked increase in footfalls at the restaurants.The three restaurants are located at Barton Centre, bang on MG Road.
Staff stare at uncertain future
Employees of pubs around MG Road are not sure whether the outlets will stay open and continue to serve food Saturday onwards or would shut down. A staffer at the pub Easy Tiger said he’s waiting for word from the owner on whether the pub would remain open after Saturday.And, even if they remain open, several staffers, like at Peco’s, have expressed doubts on the number of customers who would turn up. Some outlets like Hoppipola can move to their other outlets in the city or even to other cities, as a staff member revealed. However, most pubs don’t have this option.