The alcoholic beverage industry has always done well during down times, times of negative economic news. We worry; we imbibe. Yet, recent information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that we actually spent less on food and alcoholic beverages during 2009 than in the prior two years. That’s surprising, but it translates into drinking less expensive alcoholic beverages and dining at more moderately priced restaurants.

What has changed and what does it mean? We continue to imbibe whether for social or economic reasons. We may have taken our beverage consumption down to second-tier brands or have fewer beverages when we dine out. We still dine out, but are more careful about how we spend our money; the increase in burger places and small plate menus attest to this trend. We may even make our own wine or keep it as grape juice!

However we take our drinks, the end result still emits a less than optimistic tone. Much has to improve before the Lafite  Rothschild comes back to the table, but in the meantime cuddle up with your favorite beverage as you ingest one of the wine and spirit book recommendations from wine critic Eric Asimov of The New York Times.

As often as we try to find bright news about economic improvements, we are deluged with negative numbers. Restaurants clearly feel the pinch or in some cases, the knock out. Even on days when the Market spirals up, there’s a strong sense of uncertainty about the next day. Consumers need to spend, but that is a confidence-based response. Consequently, we are in a financial wait-and-see environment. Let’s hope many of our favorite spots, which are often financed by individuals rather than corporations, can continue to create and serve.

One facet of the business has demonstrated its prowess. That would be the beverage side. Restaurants have been working on drawing in the crowds with happy hour specials, and a recent Gallup Poll attests to our unquenchable thirst. As a matter of fact, we have not seen these impressive glass numbers since 1985. If you like your drink straight from the bottle, the beer bottle or from its can, you have plenty of company. Beer ranked number one as the beverage of choice with wine and spirits following on its heels. Beer, even with decreasing percentages, has been the field leader since 1992. Wine did get an edge in 2005. Speculation there is that wine grabbed the medical news headlines that year as a drink of choice for a heart-healthy lifestyle!

Those who like graphs have plenty of analysis and marketing strategies to consider from the report. Lots of demographic details beneficial for fine-tuning campaigns for restaurant owners and managers to study!

In the meantime, expect more restaurants to offer beverage specials to helps sell food. How ’bout some nachos with that beer? Chicken topping?

Here’s my list of May must dos:

–May 1 is the Kentucky Derby so host a derby event or at least proclaim this day as a Mint Julep extravaganza.

–May 5 translates lovingly as Cinco de Mayo, a regionally celebrated holiday in Mexico. This holiday needs little help from bloggers as most bars and many restaurants have figured out how to draw the crowds to this annual party. If you want to host a home version, you’ll find no shortage of guacamole recipes and grocery store enticements to make this a fun event.

–May 9 or the second Sunday in May gets the traditional Mother’s Day nod. This day should be devoted to the care and feeding of Mom instead of the image of aproned Mom slaving over a hot stove. Whether that is the norm of the American family anymore proves irrelevant as Mother’s Day has become a true celebration and a financial boost for many businesses.

–May 11 will prove to be a diet guru’s worst nightmare as it has been called Eat What You Want Day. Can’t even make this stuff up!

As for monthly festivities, here are a few to whet your appetite:

–National Barbecue Month (note how this month is spelled). If your weather hasn’t cooperated and your grilling has been minimal, this month should help you initiate your outdoor skills. Or view this as the time to eat barbecue. After all, at the end of the month, there is a mini food celebration: National Brisket Day. If you want to fire up an argument, ask a chef or BBQ owner for the brisket recipe!

–National Egg Month. Here’s an example of a food that has worked its way into daily routines and cooking schedules. Maybe it deserves a month of recognition for its across-the-board popularity unless health dictates otherwise. There’s always egg whites!

–National Hamburger Month. Maybe this year the hamburger will be celebrated as the food with the single biggest comeback or growth market. Have you not noticed how the basic burger has spawned a legion of restaurants dedicated to its renewed popularity? Name your city; you probably have a new burger spot. Why not?

If you’re on the festival lookout, this month kicks off some big ones including the 51st annual Artichoke Festiival (May 15-16) in Castroville, CA. The artichoke would not be a common globe at many dinner tables if this city hadn’t figured it out. As you’re roaming around, step over to The Giant Artichoke restaurant and discover all the recipes you never thought possible! BTW, if you go, you need to swing over to nearby Gilroy, home of the summertime Garlic Festival.

The following week focuses summer and one of the fastest growing beverage concepts, craft beers, with the celebration of American Craft Beer Week beginning May 17. Plenty of bars, restaurants, markets, and brewpubs will be in on this action. No shortage of promotions to entice.

So many foods, celebrations, and festivals make this an especially delicious food-centered month.

Artisan beers became a craze, and big brewers needed to step down into the craft market. Wait, for many that became a significant financial step upwards. Look at the popularity of Blue Moon and the significant number of brewers making Hefeweizens. Slice of lemon, please.

Remember expensive bottles of French wine? OK, they still exist as do the reserve wine lists, but as the recession took its toll on our dining out and dining-in budgets, we learned to embrace new regions of the world and become familiar with other wines and sparklings such as Malbec, Cava, and Prosecco. What was being poured in Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa became of greater interest to us as we scoured those regions for our new vintages.

No longer were we limited to American wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. We learned Thomas Jefferson was right: Virginia became an established wine region with award-winning wines from Barboursville, Chrysalis, and Jefferson Vineyards.

We even became fascinated by different wine glasses for different wines. What was once limited to high-end stores and fancy restaurants became more commonplace on the shelves at Target as Riedel moved into the consumer space with its 4 and 6-boxed items. A glass for red, one for white, and the emergence of the flute instead of the floating half circle for sparkling! Of course, those who follow every trend knew they needed a specific glass for a specific pour. Stop, not that one, that’s for Zinfandel only!

We even bought the whole wine lineup including the darling of the opening set, the Rabbit, and the multitude of decanting carafes. We became serious wine drinkers, and as we traveled wine regions, we became more knowledgeable, and less intimidated, by what we drank!

As we look forward, we’ve gone back to the old cocktail routine and elevated the bartender to a drink specialist who has studied the chemistry, or alchemy, of an ingredient-shaken beverage. Specialty cocktail menus re-emerged and the high priced, fun-sounding cocktail helped many restaurants survive.

We became caffeine freaks with an almost unstoppable fascination with coffee drinks, both hot and iced. It was clearly the Starbucks decade, a title the company hopes to regain in the upcoming year. Grocery stores proudly introduced coffee bars. We decided one double espresso was too limiting and added caffeine-based energy drinks to our daily consumption routines. All these steps hit soda sales as they plummeted, and the old brands started to lose the high fructose corn syrup and explore cane sugar drinks.

We were a thirsty group and little has quenched our thirst as we reach for the next tantalizing trend.

They did not study red v. white wine nor light beers v. heavy lagers, but the study author believes that lighter beverages fare better in the overindulgence headache department.

You’ve been warned.

Gotta figure the few places I went looking for G-F beer had some kind of an issue with the supplier or they would have stocked the product. After all there were plenty of other Bud family members lined up on the shelves and in the refrigerated sections. One store told me they tried to get G-F beer but price gouging was making it too hard to carry as few people were willing to pay $12 for a 6-pak.

What they didn’t tell me is the real story as this product is readily available once you find out that you do not need to go exotic but can find the beer in the Bud family! The irony is that several sales people, at different stores, told me that they get several requests every week for a G-F beer. Guess what Redbridge is priced similar to many other Bud products regardless of its wheat-free characteristics! No price gouging; just a lager.

Stock the products consumers want. Finding the distributor is not difficult. Stores are missing their mark as the G-F market continues to grow.

Caps off for a cold stein.

Seriously. What is the average, what does that even mean, drinker to do? Think it’s drink up and enjoy. Today we’re back to the good news column with a report from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finding that moderate drinking of wine or beer, defined as a glass or two a day, improves bone health. Now that’s really good news.

Bad news for those who prefer to align themselves in the spirits column as hard liquor does not have the same positive effect. Also if one or two daily drinks is too few for your lifestyle, then you move to the  problem column. The findings are hopeful as men with moderate consumption had stronger bones than non-drinkers. One of the more interesting findings of the study dealt with silicon, a mineral necessary for bone health and one that is in beer. Who knew?

One study says good; one says bad. One lists problems for one type of disease and another follows with a rebuttal that stresses something different. It probably won’t be too long before we find the downside article to this one on improved bone mass, so in the meantime, strengthen your bones and enjoy that glass of beer or wine.

Stand straight and drink up.