{"id":63846,"date":"2025-08-12T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63846\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:30:09","slug":"torontos-bourbon-shortage-having-an-impact-on-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63846\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto’s bourbon shortage having an impact on bars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bourbon fans in Toronto are coming to the realization that their drink of preference is getting increasingly hard to find, months after the Ford government first pulled U.S. alcohol from LCBO shelves in response to tariffs imposed on Canadian goods. <\/p>\n

To be labelled as bourbon the whisky product can only be made in the U.S. using 51 per cent corn and aged in charred oak barrels. And since the LCBO stopped stocking American liquors back in March<\/a>, many bars and restaurants that rely on the LCBO for their supply have had to get creative to satisfy their customers\u2019 tastes. <\/p>\n

For Jayson Green, owner of Doc\u2019s Green Door Lounge in Toronto\u2019s Junction neighbourhood, it\u2019s been challenging trying to whet his customers\u2019 appetite for bourbon, which his establishment has been completely out of for months. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult because there\u2019s approximations of bourbon but it\u2019s much like champagne where if it\u2019s not from the area, you can\u2019t call it bourbon,\u201d he told CTV News. \u201cAnd people love their Manhattans and it has been a bit tough, and there\u2019s definitely been demand for it, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: How does removing U.S. alcohol off LCBO shelves impact the spirits industry? <\/a><\/p>\n

On its website, the LCBO says<\/a> that it has honoured online orders that were paid for prior to U.S. product restrictions \u201cwhere possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

The LCBO, however, says that \u201cwholesale customers, including grocery and convenience stores, bars, restaurants, and other retailers, are no longer able to place orders of U.S. products.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said the situation will continue \u201cuntil the LCBO is directed by the government to resume normal business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green admitted that while there are products help fill the gap, like whisky from Canada, Japan and Europe, some customers still ask for bourbon. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people want bourbon, they want bourbon, so it\u2019s hard to totally replace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Johnny Rafferty, owner of Rose and Crown in midtown Toronto, says that these days you\u2019ll be hard-pressed to come across bourbon brands that were once commonplace at most bars, like Jim Beam, Maker\u2019s Mark and Bulleit. As a result, many customers are pivoting from their drink orders. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s kind of switching what they prefer, and preferably going to Canadian brands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rafferty made sure to stock up on \u201cTexas-sized\u201d bottles of bourbon, which contain about three litres of liquid in each bottle.<\/p>\n

He said that the extra supply will carry him through to the fall but will likely run out after that. Despite having a limited supply of the in-demand liquor, he hasn\u2019t raised his prices on it. <\/p>\n

Simon Ho is the president of Spirit of York in Toronto\u2019s Distillery District. He said the lack of bourbon in Canada means that anyone who can make more Canadian whiskey is trying to do that — but it takes time. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say in March \u2018no more American whiskey on the shelves\u2019 and then have a Canadian producer produce brand new whisky for the summer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a minimum of three years that you got to wait for it to be ready\u2026 we can\u2019t just magically tomorrow have more whiskey than we had planned on having.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ho said in the meantime, he\u2019s focused on things he\u2019s able to control, which is making locally sourced Canadian spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re gonna continue to do what we do best, which is make the best booze we possibly can,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bourbon fans in Toronto are coming to the realization that their drink of preference is getting increasingly hard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-63846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}