The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
57°F
Current Conditions
Few clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Spokane bars crack down on thefts of copper cups

Steve Coombs, owner of Zola in Spokane, shows one of the traditional copper cups used to serve a Moscow mule cocktail. In six months, he lost as many as 100 cups, which cost about $20 each. His employees now ask to hold ID when customers order the drink. (Jesse Tinsley)
By Eli Francovich elif@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508

The cups just kept disappearing. They would wander off, sometimes in a purse, sometimes deep in a coat pocket.

It was a slow exodus, but it added up to a problem: How do you keep pouring a popular drink that’s served in an even more appealing mug?

Steve Coombs, the owner of Zola in Spokane, had a solution. Coombs loves Moscow mules, the vodka drink that is most often served in a copper mug. However, he lost 100 cups in six months, he said. At $20 a pop, wholesale, it was too much. So, Coombs implemented a system in March that if a customer buys a Moscow mule, the bar holds onto their ID as collateral. Since then, Zola hasn’t lost a single one.

“It’s just one of the casualties,” he said. “So what you want to do is be proactive, not reactive.”

Coombs and other Spokane bar owners and managers believe customers take the mugs simply as souvenirs, or to make their own Moscow mules at home.

Like Zola, Saranac Public House started collecting IDs as collateral. Brandyn Blanchat, the general manager, said the business lost 60 cups last summer. He said most of the thefts occurred on Saranac’s patio.

James Fountain, owner of the Blind Buck and the Globe, said, “It was an issue in the past, to the point where we had to stop doing them. I seriously lost close to 200 cups over a couple years. We just couldn’t keep ahold of them.”

Now Fountain serves the drink out of mason jars.

Taking IDs, or even taking credit cards like Manito Tap House does, isn’t always the first choice. Kevin Stone, the acting manager of Press, said he loses about 12 cups a month. Still, he hesitates at the idea of collecting IDs.

“We’ve thought about doing the ID thing, but it’s really hard with Press because we have so many regular, normally good, honest people,” Stone said.

For now, Stone would rather bite the copper bullet and keep replenishing his stock.

Moscow mules helped popularize vodka in America. The drink’s birthday is disputed, with some saying it was invented in 1939 or 1941. It’s believed to have been born at the Cock’n Bull on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The drink can be made with different alcohols including rum, gin, whiskey, scotch or bourbon mixed with ginger beer, lime juice and sometimes a sprig of mint.