With in-flight alcohol service limited or unavailable, travelers in Houston have seemingly taken matters into their own hands, with pre-flight booze consumption currently accounting for a significant slice of alcohol sales in the region.
Based on data compiled by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for the month of June, alcohol sales at the Pappas family of establishments in Hobby Airport were higher than at any other bar or restaurant in Harris County, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.
Liquor, wine, and beer sales amounted to $992,780 at the Pappas Bar-B-Q, Pappas Burgers, Pappasito’s, and Pappadeaux locations in the terminals.
With two locations in the airport, Pappasito’s, and its Margarita menu, are all-time favorites in the city. With high-end tequila options, and a cocktail menu that hits all the local highlights (Ranch Water, Sangria, and Daiquiris), the bar at the Mexican restaurant is especially popular.
As ranked by the Chronicle, Little Woodrow’s location in Tomball (a city on the northwestern edge of the Houston metropolitan area) came in a distant second, with $620,898 in sales. Little Woodrow’s appears again in fourth place, with its Midtown location racking up $547,693 in booze revenue for the month.
While the numbers are very close between high-performing businesses, Pappas’s airport locations benefited from the Chronicle choosing to define its five restaurants at the airport as a single establishment.
Definitions and number-splitting aside, whichever way you slice it, that’s still a lot of Tito’s and Shiner Bock.
