Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) administrator Curtis Stewart apologized on Friday for recent liquor distribution issues affecting bars, restaurants, and package stores across the state due to ABC\u2019s recent transition to a new warehouse in Montgomery.<\/p>\n
1819 News reported on Thursday that alcohol distribution issues have led to a lack of product availability at ABC stores in recent months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mindy Hanan, president and CEO of the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association, told 1819 News that several businesses have contacted her in the last couple of months about the lack of product availability at ABC wholesale stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Stewart responded to the complaints on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand the frustration this has caused for our retail and on-premise customers, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,\u201d Stewart told Alabama\u2019s 42.<\/p>\n
Alabama is one of 17 alcohol control states. Restaurants, bars and package stores in Alabama purchase liquor and spirits through ABC wholesale stores. The ABC Board recently completed construction and moved into a large new warehouse in Montgomery. The ABC Board\u2019s old warehouse was closed on September 28.<\/p>\n
Suzanne Cisneros, director of operations at Dread River Distilling in Birmingham, told Alabama\u2019s 42 that some of the distillery\u2019s products have been sitting in ABC\u2019s previous warehouse for 11 weeks without moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don\u2019t see our products moving yet, and the longer it goes, the more revenue we\u2019re losing,\u201d Cisneros told the outlet.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said on X on Thursday it was \u201ctime to privatize\u201d ABC.<\/p>\n
Typical government inefficiency… Time to privatize.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/t.co\/RFC5H2PbxK<\/p>\n
\u2014 Senator Arthur Orr (@SenatorAOrr) November 5, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email\u00a0protected].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) administrator Curtis Stewart apologized on Friday for recent liquor distribution issues affecting bars, restaurants, and package stores across the state due to ABC\u2019s recent transition to a new warehouse in Montgomery. 1819 News reported on Thursday that alcohol distribution issues have led to a lack of product availability at ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[51456,4247,4245,4243,4246,4335,4244,919,53772],"class_list":["post-82804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alabama","tag-abc-board","tag-alabama","tag-alabama-dining","tag-alabama-food","tag-alabama-grocery-stores","tag-alabama-news","tag-alabama-restaurants","tag-alcohol","tag-arthur-orr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117586620777620120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}