The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • A22

PAGE 22A SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2022 MIAMI HERALD Building will change how craft distilleries look and improve the customer experience. Instead of only being a production center for vodka and bourbon, it will allow people to relax and smoke a cigar, eat at the restaurant, or dance the night away in between sipping a cocktail. All of this is now a possibility thanks to a Florida law that went into effect last July enabling distilleries to sell their alcohol on-site. In May, com- pany released its own bourbon called Fort named after the first free black settlement estab- lished in 1738 in what became the United States. Fort Mose, located just north of St.

Augustine, played a key part in the development of colonial North America. telling you stories, black stories that need to be Harvey said, explaining how and why he decided on the name of his bourbon. being here in Flor- ida, as we did the re- search, it was a no-brain- er, because most people know about it, including myself. And once I came across it, I said, is new bourbon tied to a piece of Florida and American history is getting noticed quickly statewide. It will be distrib- uted nationally.

His com- flagship vodka is sold at retailers in 45 states. got a lot of attention Kaushal Karia, owner of Primo Liquors, Fine Wine, and Cigars in Fort Lauderdale, said of the Fort bourbon. sold about 200 bottles in the first week. People saw the attention been getting online and gravitat- ed to its story and wanted to be the first one to get their hands on As an African-American producing vodka and bour- bon, Harvey is part of a small group. There are about 3,500 active licenses to make spirits in the Unit- ed States, and only about 200 of them are held by independent Black-owned and operated distilleries, said Conley Fitzpatrick, marketing chief for Prong- horn, an independent business working to di- versify and grow the repre- sentation of Black en- trepreneurs in the spirits industry.

believe that every industry should reflect the consumer. Black Amer- icans represent about of drinkers but only about at the executive Fitzpatrick said. think that is going to be great for key business collaborator is Summer Piep, founder and co- owner of Palm Beach Distillery, first female-owned and operated distillery he ac- quired in January. Piep is master distiller of Fort and other spirits in the pipeline. create the great prod- ucts and he knows how to sell Piep said.

of us being a minor- ity in this industry, me being female, him being Black, is what brought us together. So make something Karia, the beverage and cigar retailer, thinks Har- business strategy reflects his down-to-earth personality. doing a grassroots approach. Like if sitting at the bar Eddie in Las Olas, you might meet Victor there on a weeknight, and he might buy you a Fort old- Karia said. from that experi- ence, having met the own- er, having tried his drink, and him being generous enough to buy you a nice cocktail, people become brand ambassadors.

And gonna come out and look for his drinks at Primo or other local retail- Karia has seen that a portion of his customers want to support minority- owned spirits purveyors like Harvey who started his business in 2016. see customers coming in making a con- scious decision when going to make a he said. going to be a brand going to be minority- owned, Black-owned, Florida-owned. That seems to be a common Daniel Oropeza: DanielOropeza92 FROM PAGE 21A SPIRITS www.anolimanagement.com Fort bourbon is named after the town of Fort which was established in 1738, two miles north of St. Augustine.

It was the first free black town in the U.S. months, the new surge appear to have instilled that level of travel fear in consumers. people are al- ready in a mind-set that this is an endemic and not a said Michael Cheng, the dean of Florida International Chaplin School of Hospi- tality and Tourism Man- agement. majority of people who get it today seem to be dealing with it like a minor inconve- nience. People are past the mentality of fear of CO- VID and its consequenc- Cheng predicted, going to be a in summer tourism in Miami, gonna be very short, not a long As COVID-19 cases crept up the week of June 6, Miami-Dade hotels had an average occupancy of and an average daily overnight room rate of $205, compared to average occupancy at $155 a night during the same week in 2019, before the pandemic, according to data from STR, a hospital- ity analytics company.

Glenn Sampert, general manager of the Interconti- nental Hotel in downtown Miami, said there have been a few recent cancel- lations related to the virus, but not many. have recently expe- rienced some last-minute cancellations as a result of people becoming ill, or a close family he said. there are no signs of significant cancellations. Our booking trends remain J.C. Celestino owns a lemonade stand at the Bayside Marketplace and has served plenty of tour- ists over a decade.

He said business is booming, de- spite the pesky virus. are definitely he said. feels like done with the pandemic and care anymore like if they get it, then they get Despite sustaining virus outbreaks during the worst of the pandemic, cruise ships now are experiencing a boom. Leading global cruise lines like Royal Ca- ribbean and Carnival, both based in Miami, said had record pas- senger bookings for sum- mer and fall voyages. our restart of cruising in June 2021, seen strong demand for cruise vacations, wel- coming more than two million guests on said Jonathon Fishman, director of corporate and incident communications at Royal Caribbean Group.

Royal entire 63-ship fleet will be back in operation and sailing by the end of the month. into the sum- mer season, seeing more and more multigener- ational families looking to make up for lost time to- gether during the pandem- ic, as well as a promising demand environment from our Fishman said, adding that Royal Carib- ships continue to enforce stringent CO- VID-19 safety protocols and high vaccination levels among passengers and crew. All of the ships now sailing in U.S. waters have at least of the shipboard population vaccinated. Cruise Critic, an online forum owned by TripAd- visor, said in a survey of 3,800 readers conducted between May 24 and June 14, of them have at least one cruise booked.

And of those who have cruises scheduled already, about half of them will be cruising this summer. Of those, just of survey respondents say COVID-19 fear would cause them to reconsider taking the voy- age. Anna Jean Kaiser: 305-376-2239, FROM PAGE 21A VIRUS.