Cotton District restaurant expects New Year’s revenue to drop 60-70 percent due to alcohol & space restrictions

STARKVILLE, MISS. (WCBI) – With Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves’ executive order for bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m., local establishments are changing their approach to what is usually one of their best nights of the year.

“The whole business model for what we do on a New Year’s Eve night will completely change,” says Barton Dinkins, owner of Two Brother’s Smoked Meats in Starkville’s Cotton District.

Normally, this would be about the time Dinkins’s restaurant would be gearing up for their big New Year’s Eve party.

“Usually we have really good turnouts,” he says. “We’ll have a band so we can have live music for people.”

Dinkins says the entire New Year’s weekend would usually have the potential to be in the top 15 percent in earnings for the entire year. But not in 2020.

” I would say this year, I would expect to see a revenue drop off of more than 60 to 70 percent,” Dinkins predicts.

I was in early December when Gov. Reeves issued Executive Order 1535 that says bars and restaurants must stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m.

Now, some of the Cotton District’s most popular spots, such as Bin 612, won’t even be open on New Year’s Eve.

“Even if there would be some extra spillover in business, there’s no way for us to capture that,” Dinkins says. “Just because of the regulations on seating and spacing.”

Those restrictions and the concern over the virus are also leading plenty of people to ring in the new year at home.

“Usually I would go out to the bars and probably drink a little bit with some friends,” says Mississippi State Junior Daniel Jones. “But this year, because of COVID, I’m probably just going to go over to some friends’ house and shoot some fireworks with them.”

Instead of the large party, Dinkins says Two Brothers will be focusing on serving food specials throughout the day.

“I would imagine that we will fill up most of our seats pretty early and those people will hang out through the duration of the night until everybody’s got to be out at 11,” he says.

In what he already described as a tough year for the restaurant, Dinkins says he still does not know what the full impact of missing out on the New Year’s Eve boost could be.

“I feel like it all depends on when we start seeing stuff go back to normal,” he says. “I mean, every opportunity missed chips away at your possibility to be sustainable.”

Two Brothers is currently allowing just 10 patrons inside the restaurant at a time with parties of six people or less.