{"id":131232,"date":"2026-03-06T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131232\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:42:34","slug":"americans-are-drinking-less-what-does-that-mean-for-lehigh-valley-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131232\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans are drinking less. What does that mean for Lehigh Valley businesses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What future does alcohol have?<\/p>\n

Any bar, restaurant or brewery wrestles with that question, especially now.<\/p>\n

The percentage of United States adults who say they consume alcohol fell to 54% last year, the lowest since 1939, according to an August Gallup poll<\/a>. That trend is also true for young Americans, Gallup also reported<\/a>, as more people become concerned about alcohol consumption\u2019s health effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley has welcomed quite a few businesses recently where drinks are specialties \u2014 among them The Broken Record<\/a> in Lower Macungie Township, Presley\u2019s Cocktail Bar<\/a> in Easton, Barley Creek Taproom Saucon<\/a> at Promenade Saucon Valley and the 1812 Piano Lounge<\/a> in Allentown.<\/p>\n

At the same time, customers have said goodbye<\/a> to similar businesses in the last few years \u2014 places like Blended<\/a> in Allentown, Bar Louie<\/a> at Promenade Saucon Valley, Mother\u2019s Bar & Grille<\/a> in Easton and the Pocono Brewery Co. Taproom<\/a> and Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant<\/a> at Lehigh Valley Mall.<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley tavern owners and industry experts told The Morning Call that there are many reasons behind the trend, but businesses still can succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWineries and breweries are opening up everywhere you turn, but \u2026 there\u2019s also been several closures,\u201d said Michelle Ritter, owner of the Willow Street Pub in North Whitehall Township and a board member for the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage & Tavern Association. \u201c[Alcoholic beverages are] \u2026 a lot more accessible now. You think you\u2019re going to go have a beer \u2014 you don\u2019t have to just go to the bar. You can go to the corner store and buy a beer now. You can go to the grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritter said her pub, which opened over 25 years ago, has seen food and alcohol sales rise each year, and she doesn\u2019t believe less people are drinking or that people have stopped going out. The challenge, she said, is to keep prices reasonable while costs go up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just the longevity, like we\u2019ve been there for so long,\u201d Ritter said of the pub\u2019s success. \u201cHonestly, I mean, we don\u2019t really do any advertising at all. We\u2019re all word of mouth, so we don\u2019t run coupons, we don\u2019t do all that kind of stuff, so I don\u2019t know. I would just say it\u2019s the atmosphere, the service, the good food. That\u2019s probably what I would attribute it to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip Simonetta, who took over last year<\/a> as co-owner at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse in Easton, said it was too early to say how alcohol sales have trended at his restaurant but recognized that beer and wine sales have generally declined in the last few years locally and nationally, though overall alcohol sales have been strong recently at his place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand has dropped off because there\u2019s other options for people, I believe,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have legalization of marijuana, you have gummies, you have \u2026 people are turning to other avenues for their recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that with the COVID-19 pandemic and social media, the ways people go out and socialize have changed. Computers and phones have given other means to connect with people rather than over a drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t out as late anymore, people aren\u2019t as [social] anymore, like social norms have changed, but I feel I see it coming back,\u201d Simonetta said. \u201cThose social norms are starting to change, like kind of migrate back to where they were. People hanging out, people having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Pearly Baker\u2019s, Simonetta said he\u2019s building more of an \u201cexperience\u201d that is complemented by alcohol rather than just a bar, where the goal is just to get customers inside, cater to them beyond alcohol and be flexible with offerings.<\/p>\n

That includes live music, trivia nights, open mic events, karaoke, a chili contest, social media announcements, restaurant weeks, replacing food ingredients with more affordable options and offering mocktails.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how you combat liquor sales being down \u2026 you create a place where people want to be,\u201d Simonetta said. \u201cAnd then because they want to be there, they\u2019re going to buy what you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sierra<\/p>\n

Sierra Fryer of Easton fills an order at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Sierra<\/p>\n

Sierra Fryer of Easton fills an order at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Pearly<\/p>\n

Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cocktail at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Steven<\/p>\n

Steven Crawford, Mark Williams and Bill Charles, all of Easton have drinks at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Olivia<\/p>\n

Olivia Delong of Allentown serves drinks at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Krystal<\/p>\n

Krystal Cruz and Cody Nastacio, both of Easton, have dinner and drinks at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A customer has a drink at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Sierra<\/p>\n

Sierra Fryer of Easton serves drinks at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Marlene<\/p>\n

Marlene Miller, Joan Dean and Jill Allen, all of Easton, have cocktails at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Philip<\/p>\n

Philip Simonetta and his brother Joseph, owners of Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, pose in the bar area on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Ra<\/p>\n

Ra Umarov of Easton plays pool at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

Sierra Fryer of Easton fills an order at Pearly Baker\u2019s Alehouse, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Easton. (Jane Therese\/Special to The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

HiJinx Brewing Co. owner Curt Keck, with about 30 years in the alcohol industry, has seen those trends go in cycles. He doesn\u2019t believe alcohol will go away, and breweries do keep opening, but people are consuming alcohol differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201990s, I worked for two other local microbreweries, and shortly after I started, we started to see a trend toward wine,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think now we\u2019re seeing the trend toward low-alcohol beverages, ready-to-drink cocktails, we saw a little surge for ciders and seltzers. It just seemed that they drifted away from beer for a little bit and still continue to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keck said he\u2019s also seeing a decline in alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that be [for] health or health reasons or economic reasons, I don\u2019t know for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, I have two sons, and they\u2019re not big drinkers. So their generation \u2026 especially my youngest, he\u2019s 23, his friends are not consuming alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keck has also seen restaurants and bars at lower capacity, including a lack of foot traffic for the former HiJinx location in Allentown that closed last year before it announced a new location in Tatamy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He justified the decision not only because the downsizing can accommodate the declining trend of drinking (or just not spending as much money), but the new location gives patrons an option for outdoor space. It also has live music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s mostly implementing some kind of entertainment program and keeping the draw there, regardless of consumption, and pivoting into a position where it\u2019s not solely about the alcohol,\u201d Keck said. \u201cBeing creative with what the draw is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Lehigh Valley, sales depend on location<\/p>\n

Steve DiDonato, founder of the Lehigh Valley Restaurant Owners Alliance who sells wine through The Wine Merchant importer and distributor, said the restaurants it distributes to are mostly doing well and have been resilient when it comes to alcohol sales, but he recognized a drop-off in statewide and national alcohol sales.<\/p>\n

DiDonato said that following the COVID-19 pandemic, many places aren\u2019t open to let people have a classic martini lunch anymore, or are closed Monday or Tuesday. They also don\u2019t stay open as late.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people just reevaluated their life \u2026 and just said, \u2018If I add a lunch service, I\u2019ve got to have an entire new staff,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cSo looking at costs \u2026 obviously food costs have gone up tremendously, especially during the last administration when prices went off the chart. I don\u2019t know how people survived that, to be honest with you. When we had 9% inflation, I don\u2019t understand how restaurants survived it.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiDonato added that this can look different depending on where you are in the Lehigh Valley. Easton and Bethlehem restaurants have thrived, he said, but things are tougher in downtown Allentown, which has recently welcomed Okatshe, Moxy Allentown Downtown hotel, Archer Music Hall and the Italian restaurant Simpatico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people that work downtown, at 5 o\u2019clock when the bell rings, they get in their car and they leave,\u201d DiDonato said. \u201cThat happy hour business isn\u2019t like it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiDonato said that\u2019s a shift from around 20 years ago, when Allentown had \u201ca happening restaurant scene in downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe happy-hour, after-work crowd was a lot of fun,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that anymore. They\u2019re missing a big chunk of that business, and I don\u2019t know how to get those people to go out after work. I don\u2019t have an answer for it, and I think everybody struggles with it. I don\u2019t know if anybody has the right answer. The restaurants that are being aggressive, they\u2019re doing aggressive happy hours. They\u2019re trying to do some fun things, some people have music, just to try to get people to come in after work because that\u2019s a huge part of what their business used to be. \u2026 It\u2019s become more of a dining destination and less of an after-work, happy-hour kind of crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard E. Ryan, the CEO and president of Bru Daddy\u2019s Brewing Co. in Allentown, said while alcohol sales have trended downward at his business, it\u2019s still done well with craft beer sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started, we were a bar that served food,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we\u2019re a restaurant that serves alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

He agreed with the idea that the restaurant and happy hour scenes have struggled in Allentown. This is not just because of the pandemic, but because of the influx of apartments and renters rather than family homes and residents who live there for decades.<\/p>\n

Ryan hopes, however, that additions like Archer Music Hall and the Moxy can help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of new properties that serve to bring people downtown, and so that\u2019s kind of working in the positive direction,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019re seeing for example, at Bru Daddy\u2019s, we\u2019re seeing a lot more families with kids than we did five or six years ago, and that\u2019s great. That\u2019s really good for our business and in terms of what we prefer, we actually prefer that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcohol sales are changing everywhere in the Lehigh Valley, restaurant owners said.<\/p>\n

Simon Vovra, operations vice president for The Shelby in Lower Macungie Township, said it hasn\u2019t seen a decline in alcohol interest, but customers have become more thoughtful and selective.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean looking for just elevated beverages like handcrafted cocktails or mocktails, but also looking for more unique restaurant experiences like Okatshe, or those found in New York or Miami. They have a higher standard now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re looking for different,\u201d Vovra said.<\/p>\n

Simpatico owner Jesse Haik, who also co-owns the nearby Pennsylvania Rye Co., said both haven\u2019t been affected much by the trends of alcohol sales but acknowledged softer alcohol consumption during \u201cdry\u201d January in the last few years.<\/p>\n

He added younger people don\u2019t seem to be getting as much into alcohol as previous generations, and that he predicts the broader decline in hospitality alcohol sales will continue as they become more of the workforce population and regional income.<\/p>\n

Haik also felt most people just aren\u2019t spending as \u201crobustly\u201d as they used to, highlighting possible reasons such as tariffs and a stagnant job market.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are also concerned about the effects of ICE and the immigration policies because whether people are here, illegal or not, or whether you agree with that situation or not and what\u2019s happening with it \u2026 if these people are leaving the country or if they\u2019re hiding from this organization that\u2019s looking to deport them, they\u2019re not spending as much money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Part of the solution is to broaden the scope of beverages as a category, he said, such as with nonalcoholic drinks \u2014 like water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know in Manhattan, there\u2019s certain higher-end restaurants that have water menus,\u201d Haik said. \u201cThey\u2019ll have Fiji, Evian \u2026 Pellegrino, of course, Acqua Panna. But then not only do they have these products, but there\u2019s someone able to speak to you about them \u2014\u00a0 their texture, their mouthfeel.\u201d<\/p>\n

A traditional, alcohol-focused bar may not have as much of a future beyond places like a college campus, Simonetta said, but he still believes alcoholic drinks have a future where people demand it and use it as a social crutch.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are always going to be social,\u201d he said. \u201cIs the alcohol going to be part of the new socialization, is the question, and I think it always will be,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have trends, you\u2019re going to have where it comes up or down, up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What future does alcohol have? Any bar, restaurant or brewery wrestles with that question, especially now. The percentage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,182,435,436,289,432],"class_list":["post-131232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-restaurants-food-and-drink","tag-retail","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}