Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Toland, the fine spirits writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His eyes sparkled with subtle humor as we talked about beer in grocery stores, a topic you may have noticed I don’t really talk about (I guess I don’t find it as revolutionary as some. Bill may have swayed this a bit).

You don’t get to see those eyes though. For many reasons, mostly my own absent mindedness, I do not have a picture of him and he did offer one up. Instead, you get the ubiquitous Question Mark Face:

Anyway, lets get on with it!

THIRSTY GIRL: So how do you like your job?
BILL: I like it a lot. I’ve learned a lot the last three years. You get to try a lot of things. A lot of free samples which is nice. I didn’t know much about it going in. I was more of a beer guy and I didn’t drink much hard liquor. I found out I didn’t know much about it. So I’ve been learning a lot, especially about American whiskeys, especially bourbons and ryes. And gin! I never used to drink gin and now I’m a huge fan. Its been good and fun for me.

THIRSTY GIRL: Have you expanded that part
BILL: Like most newspapers, you don’t have the luxury of writing about just one thing. I write about health insurance, government and casinos, about politics. It would be nice to focus just on this but its nice to do other stuff too. You don’t learn as much as you would otherwise if I was doing this five days a week. I don’t know if I’d want to do this five days a week. You’d have to really love alcohol to do that. And it becomes a job if you have to do it that much. It is a job, by definition I guess.

THIRSTY GIRL: What do you think of the Pennsylvania liquor laws?
BILL: Difficult for a newcomer, I think. I grew up with them, so they didn’t bother me. Its not like when I turned 21 and I ran to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine it didn’t make sense. Its what my family had always done. But I can see how it makes people absolutely bonkers. When they’re having a party, they can’t just go to one place to get their alcohol. You can’t just go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of wine, some gin and a case of beer, you have to go to the supermarket and then go to the beer distributor and then go to the wine and spirits store. So, I’m used to it, but I think its maddening for a lot of people.

THIRSTY GIRL: I think one of the big stories right now is getting beer into the groceries stores. What are your thoughts on that?
BILL: I think its great! I’m surprised nobody thought of it early. Nobody looked at that loophole, though its not really a loophole, its just saying that the PLCB has several different divisions of liquor licenses. One of them is sort of a cafe license, sort of like D’s has or the hot dog shop has where you’re a cafe, You’re not a full service bar, but you can sell six packs and consume up to two beers on premises. A lot of the hot dog shops do it as a loss leader. They don’t make money on the hot dogs, they make money off the six packs.

I’m surprised they didn’t think of that before, actually. But it was a matter of fighting the malt liquor association. Its been a long time. Sheetz has been trying for 5 years.

THIRSTY GIRL: I heard one of the problems with Sheetz is that they don’t have a designated eating place and that’s why they’re not going forward.
BILL: That’s true with some of them. Some of them could definitely do it and have a large enough place. Sheetz has another problem, that is has a gas station. The PLCB has a different set of laws pertaining to gas stations.

THIRSTY GIRL: Which is a no!
BILL: Yeah, you can’t! So, they’d have to separate that with some sort of physical barrier. It makes it very difficult. Sheetz has been trying to figure out how to sell six-packs from their stores for years since they do it from their stores in all the other states that their in.

THIRSTY GIRL: Mandating a place you can drink your liquor on premises seems a little confusing when you’re fighting drinking and driving.
BILL: And that was Sheetz’ argument that they aren’t looking to sell beer for consumption on premises. They just want to sell six packs. But the PLCB laws say you must have a place to consume on premises or you don’t have a license. There’s no in between.

THIRSTY GIRL: If you could change or implement one thing for the PLCB, what would it be?
BILL: It would probably be, in addition to being able to buy beer in the grocery store, you’d be able to buy a bottle of wine. Its would be so convenient, especially on a Saturday night when the store is closed, you could get it from a grocery store for dinner. They’ve gotten better, now that a few of the liquor stores can be open on Sundays. That’s a relatively new thing. Some of the beer distributors are open on Sundays. That’s a new thing. So, I think they should look towards a new category of license within supermarkets.

THIRSTY GIRL: Do you think that can spur on a revolution within the PLCB?
BILL: Well, I think that’s a strong word. But, I think its a step toward keeping it in state hands which it looks like they have no intention of selling it off. They should be looking to maximize revenue. And there’s always political groups and church groups saying “well, why should they be in the business of maximizing revenue? Why should they try to sell as much booze to the Pennsylvania residents as possible?” But I think as long as they are in that business, that should be their goal, to make things as convenient and easy here as they are in Ohio or Maryland. And they’re getting there. It’ll be fifty years ‘till their fully there but they’re getting there.

THIRSTY GIRL: What’s your favorite glass of alcohol you’ve ever had?
BILL: Oh man. No one’s ever asked me that before and I’ve never really thought about it  before. I really enjoy ryes when I can get a hold of them cause they’re small batch and a lot of good ryes are aged. They’re getting popular now, but if you’re making aged ryes, you had to be prescient enough to have been making them twelve years ago. I’ve had some really good ryes in the last few years that have come on the market. It’s a good whiskey, one of the great American whiskeys and then after the war it just disappeared. No one made a rye anymore. Then the last five or six years its made a bit of a comeback. It was exciting to try absinthe for the first time. I don’t know if I’ve had a best, but that was exciting.

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