Out of Ground in downtown Statesboro could potentially offer more than just shots of ginger juice as the locally owned café recently applied for a liquor license this past month of October.

“Having a license is almost a necessity now, and the downtown city isn’t charging for licenses right now,” Tina Anderson, owner of Out of Ground, said.

Anderson applied for the liquor license with hopes of increasing business to her café.

“Right now the business is not busy enough, it’s just me and my daughter here. I am considering selling beer and wine, but we would want to have some unique beer options,” Anderson said. “We can’t advertise that until it’s actually in the store though.”

A financial incentive has been set in place for locally owned businesses in the downtown area to apply for an alcohol license and not have to pay the fee for a year, Andrew Muldrew, executive director of Downtown Statesboro Development, said.

“These businesses are owned by families, not corporations, and don’t have deep pockets. We wanted to use this to attract more businesses and people to these unique and creative businesses,” Muldrew said.

Currently, the café’s bar at Out of Ground offers four one-ounce shot cups of wheat-grass juice, ginger juice, lemon juice and cranberry juice in their “homerun” special that provides natural sources of energy along with other health benefits.

“The home run is a shot of wheat grass, ginger, lemon and one hundred percent pure cranberry juice. There’s a lot of information out there on what each one of those juices do for you,” Anderson said.

According to JuicingforHealth.com, wheatgrass can help in weight control, the immune system and even athlete’s foot, along with a list of other health benefits.

“The main reason why people take these shots is for their natural energy benefits, the other stuff is just a plus,” Anderson said.

The locally owned café also sells a variety of natural fruit juices, smoothies, coffees and lunch items from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and are closed on Sundays.

“We have healthy snack items like cliff bars and luna bars, even organic cookies. Most of what we have in the store is all natural,” Anderson said.

Anderson said, “We’ve been open for six weeks and applied for the license just in case we need to shift gears.”