SLA Raids Bar for Selling Wisconsin Beer

An Upper East Side sports bar popular with Wisconsin transplants was slapped with two fines totaling $20,000 for selling a popular beer that's only licensed to sell in Wisconsin. The owners of Mad River Bar & Grille were fined by the SLA earlier this month for pouring Spotted Cow, a microbrewed ale that retails in Wisconsin for about $30 a case or $1.25 a bottle.

An SLA spokesman tells the Wisconson State Journal that businesses selling alcohol in New York need to purchase their alcohol through a wholesale distributor. Officials seized 50 cases of the forbidden beer during a raid on November 6th. The SLA was tipped off after a call from an anonymous wet blanket tipster. Spotted Cow, created in 1996, is the most popular beer produced by New Glarus Brewery, which expects to move 50,000 barrels of the brew this year.

Last week New Glarus brewmaster Dan Carey received a call from the SLA asking if they were selling the beer in NYC. It's unclear how Mad River got their hands on the Spotted Cow, but Carey tells the Post, "I feel bad for the Wisconsin ex-pats who can't get a taste of home." He denies selling it across state lines, and tells the Wisconsin State Journal, "As goofy as it sounds, we don't want to be a big brewery. We want to control our growth."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on November 27, 2009 5:05 PM

Comments [rss]

ebelly

yeah definately wired....

Swagata

It's really distasteful activity by the SLA.

Alan G

"businesses selling alcohol in New York need to purchase their alcohol through a wholesale distributor"

Someone forgot to grease someones palms. Oops!

Also who's the rat that snitched on the bar?

Justina

as someone who lives in Wisconsin and mainly drinks Spotted Cow... I want to know where these $1.25 bottles of Spotted Cow are? I am going out for drinks this evening and am fully aware that Spotted Cow costs between $3.75 and $4 a bottle depending on the bar. But I will say that I feel very sorry that all of you in NYC will not get to experience this wonderful beer. BOOO! on the tipster!!! Obviously, this person was not from Wisconsin.

Espiazul

"I thought we all believed in capitalism and free trade."

Dude, it's what we have, not what we beleive in. As a matter of fact, with all that's going on in our free trade capitalist economy, if you still "beleive" in it, you probably also believe in religion.

thefacts

""I feel bad for the Wisconsin ex-pats who can't get a taste of home." "

Let them drink Miller.

starrygordon

I thought we all believed in capitalism and free trade.

Espiazul

The SLA is a department, a bureau- could be mob, but could just be any other group working directly for the distributors. The distributors are middle men. Tarrifs, taxes, and "tips" and transport considerations are all handled by them. NYC, being a city that requires special considerations does in fact need them. Think of every bar in NYC importing their own beer varieties from all over the place: a million delivery trucks all delivering at one time would be enough to make you want to have someone deal with the situation. But also, the truth about business in this city is that everybody gets a cut.

jaycjay

"The SLA was tipped off after a call from an anonymous wet blanket tipster"

Where does that even come from? There's no mention in either of the two linked articles of a tipster, and I can't find any mention through a Google news search of how the SLA found out about this.

Seems like it could simply have been a routine check of receipts and running the inventory through the SLA database of registered wholesalers.

kazubes

Youve gotta wonder what kind of loser reported Mad River for this. Who evens know that they bought this beer illegally other than a disgruntled employee.

pally

Most anybody who knows much about beer distribution knows New Glarus is not distributed outside of Wisconsin. Heck, I expect that half the bar's customers know that you can't get New Glarus legally in NY.

longacre

Maybe a competing bar tried to order it and discovered it couldn't be had, then dropped dime.

RevWaldo

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',

we're gonna do what they say can't be done.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Keep your foot hard on the pedal. Son, never mind them brakes.

Let it all hang out 'cause we got a run to make.

The boys are thirsty in Manhattan and there's beer in Wisconsin.

And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',

we're gonna do what they say can't be done.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Ol' Smokey's got them ears on and he's hot on your trail.

He aint gonna rest 'til you're in jail.

So you got to dodge 'im and you got to duck 'im,

you got to keep that diesel truckin'.

Just put that hammer down and give it hell.

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',

we're gonna do what they say can't be done.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

LilEnosBurdette

But did they ever make it back with the clam chowder?

tsol

Revenoors in New York City!

ohhleary

Forget what the bar did. Who's the good-for-nothing tattletale who reported the bar to the SLA?

Fritzdecat

reminds me of the Simbianese liberation Army

NannyState

They really do seem crankier since they had to release Patty Hearst, but I hear they did bring on a new undercover agent named "Tania" who likes to jack any bar with "Hibernia" in their name.