Nashville drinks.
Memphis does, too. But the latest state numbers show that Davidson-County-drinking is on a whole other level. Those numbers also show that drinking out roared back in Memphis last year, just like so many predicted before the pandemic’s end.
Before we get to the numbers, let’s check some assumptions for the Memphis/Nashville comparison.
Nashville gets a lot of tourists. It’s become a national destination for those woo-girl bachelorette parties with pink cowboy hats, brand new boots, sashes, and penis-everything accoutrements. Plenty of country music fans flock to Music City for the, uh, music. Conventioneers also gather at the city’s myriad conference rooms to discuss their thing.
Nashville is also Tennessee’s capital, of course. It brings business people from all kinds of industries there to talk turkey with state offices. The Tennessee General Assembly’s annual session in Nashville brings lawmakers, lobbyists, and constituents together for hosts of meet-and-greets, receptions, dinners, and, uh, more.
What does this have to do with drinking?
Liquor-by-the-drink sales in Memphis over the last 12 months were nearly $140 million. Sales in Nashville were nearly $600 million. The amount of drinks served in Memphis last fiscal year were not quite a quarter (23 percent) of what they were in Nashville.
These numbers are all extrapolated from recent data from the Tennessee Department of Revenue (TDR). The office said liquor-by-drink taxes collected from Davidson County over the last 12 months were nearly $90 million. In Memphis, those taxes were nearly $21 million.
For a more straight-up comparison, the state said tax collections in Memphis were $22.39 per capita last fiscal year. In Nashville, the figure was $129.48.
Roaring back?
During the pandemic, it seems everyone was predicting a new Roaring ‘20s after the mess was over — headlines, social media, and those friends you spoke to outside, from six feet away, while wearing a mask. We’d all be so happy to get back to life that bars and restaurants would be packed, they predicted.
While it’s hard to remember getting back to normal — even though it was really only last year — the state’s drink numbers tell the tale.
Sales figures were steady through the end of 2019. They began to slump in the beginning of 2020 and fell through the floor as lockdowns came in April and May.
May 2020 was the bleakest pandemic month for Tennessee drink sales in bars and restaurants, crashing 73 percent from the previous month. However, sales sprang back 182 percent the next month, possibly spurred by the organization of to-go sales programs at bars and restaurants. But those sales were nowhere near back to normal.
Around March 2021, vaccines became available, mask mandates loosened, and many businesses announced plans to fully re-open. Drink sales spiked 78 percent from March to April that year, the largest monthly sales gain during the last four years.
2021 year-end drink sales in Memphis were nearly $95 million, the lowest during the pandemic. That number boosted to more than $157 million in 2022, once many began to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror and return at will to the city’s many bars and restaurants.
That figure would prove to be the high-water mark for post-pandemic, drinks-out revelry in the city, the height of the new Roaring ’20s so many predicted here and everywhere.
Drinks sales settled back this past year to about $140 million. However, the figure remains way higher than the beginning of the pandemic, when sales were $112.5 million in 2020.
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