Dylan Brogan
A double shot of agave wine? WTH?
One of the showstoppers at the glitzy, flagship Taco Bell Cantina in Las Vegas are the eight brightly colored Twisted Freeze machines on display. A big novelty of the fast food chain’s new “Cantina” restaurants isn’t the sugary ice drinks but the shot of rum, vodka or tequila that can be added to the beverages.
Bell Great Lakes LLC, a franchisee of Taco Bell Cantina, originally planned to bring these booze-laden slushies to State Street. Alas, Madison isn’t as easy-going as Sin City. The company dropped the idea after learning that the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee (ALRC) likely wouldn’t approve a full liquor license for any applicant on the 500 block of State Street. So the franchise settled for a license to sell just beer and wine — and even that took over a year, a public battle with then-Mayor Paul Soglin, and a successful lawsuit against the city.
But when the Taco Bell Cantina on State Street finally started serving beer and wine on June 7, a spiked Twisted Freeze was on the menu.
How? Instead of adding a shot of hard liquor to the slushies, the restaurant offers to add a shot of agave wine with 20 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) — far more than a Spotted Cow (4.8 percent ABV) or glass of Sutter Hill chardonnay (13 percent ABV), which are also on the drinks menu.
Several emails and calls requesting an interview with the restaurant operators were not returned.
Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy was shocked when told about what Isthmus is dubbing the “agave wine loophole.” She looked up the statutory language for what qualifies as wine (as opposed to a spirit) and found that anything higher than 21 percent ABV would be a violation of the Taco Bell Cantina’s beer and wine license.
Zilavy says it was the city’s understanding that the restaurant would not be serving alcohol slushies at all. Its application for a beer and wine license doesn’t mention adding shots of agave wine to its non-alcoholic slushies.
“I think that was most people’s impression. You don’t think of adding a shot of something into a drink as beer and wine. I think if they would have stated exactly what they are evidently doing, that would have caused a very different reaction,” says Zilavy. “Obviously, 20 percent [ABV] is pushing the limit in terms of ‘wine.’”
Zilavy was further dumbstruck to learn that the restaurant is advertising a double shot of agave wine for its Twisted Freezes, bringing the alcohol content of its booze slushies even higher.
“That’s just crazy to me. A double shot of 20 percent [agave wine]?” Zilavy asks rhetorically. “When this was being described [to city officials] I think everybody was thinking a bottle of beer. A glass of wine. Not a double shot of 20 percent [alcohol].”
Zilavy adds that Taco Bell Cantina’s license doesn’t provide for what the restaurant is doing.
“The license authorizes the retail sale of wine by the glass or in an opened original container for consumption on the premises where sold,” Zilavy writes in a follow-up email. “The [state] statute, as written, does not contemplate using a class C wine license as a way to serve wine [in] a mixed drink.”
Zilavy says the city is looking into it. The saga continues....
