As early as Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to officially announce that expanded bar service won’t be included, after all, in the initial Phase 3 reopenings on July 17.
With recent decisions in New York and New Jersey to hold off on indoor restaurant dining, the pressure is on Connecticut’s hospitality industry to keep the infection rate down.
“I think the bars are going to have to take a pause right now,” Lamont told reporters Thursday.
Mostly idle since March, or surviving on truncated service for food and drinks, bars will likely have to wait longer before they can get back to business approaching normal, as the coronavirus flare-ups throughout the United States are ominous.
Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, said that while many bar owners are anxious, the majority understand that reopening is going to require preparation and strict adherence to safety protocols.
“Spacing distancing, folks wearing masks are all part of this conversation,” Dolch said, praising Lamont’s administration for its communications with the industry. “There’s definitely frustration. Obviously it’s a sector of our industry that’s told they can’t open.”
Nearly every Connecticut establishment is different, operating among dozens of different types of liquor licenses.
Tim Cabral, co-owner of Ordinary, on Chapel Street across from the New Haven Green, has a full commercial kitchen, but with limited seating in a landmark space that claims fame as the oldest bar in the city, he hasn’t yet opened for even limited indoor dining, and has virtually no outdoor space.
“One of the hard realities in what happened is, we lost all our graduation business, and that usually floats us through the summer,” he said. “We’re still far away from even figuring out what the new normal is. We don’t have a bar (only) license, so we could have opened whenever we wanted, but things are constantly shifting. I don’t fault anybody. You roll with it, figure it out and do what you can.”
Cabral’s been supervising renovations to update socially distant indoor seating, while maintaining a presence in the market by offering takeout dishes and drinks. But he’s surprised at how successful his twice-a-month virtual cocktail hours have worked with patrons.
“People have been nice enough to let us into their homes,” Cabral said. At mid-week, patrons pick up the makings of cocktails at Ordinary, located one block from the Yale campus, take them home and tune in every other Friday night. In recent weeks, Cabral has teamed up with local chefs for food and booze pairings.
“People are getting dressed up,” Cabral recalled. “One couple puts the computer on their bar and they sit on their bar stools and watch me on the bar.”
But all-in-all, it has been a rough shutdown.
Cabral’s hoping that by early August, Ordinary will be able to finally reopen.
A pause
Restaurants and bars with food service in the state have been able to sit customers indoors during Phase 2, but capacity has been limited to 50 percent. People have been allowed to sit at bars if they ordered food, were seated six feet apart from others and shielded by plexiglass.
Bar and restaurant owners were hoping to relax restrictions further, including by serving drinks only, without the food requirement, by mid-July.
Dolch said that after six weeks of outdoor dining and two weeks of limited inside seating, restaurants are ready to expand, but they also understand the risks and realities involved.
“None of us want to take a step backwards,” Dolch said. “We’ve done an amazing job. Let’s continue to look at guidelines and rules. ... The biggest thing right now is to not try to get ahead of ourselves. Yes, some days we would like to open sooner, but as a whole our members take it to heart.”
Lamont said at the moment he’s looking at other parts of the country where transmission of the coronavirus is on the rise.
“I’m sort of inclined to think about a pause before we do anything else, because I’m thinking about the flare ups,” Lamont said. “They’re getting closer to Connecticut. Thank God we’ve got good neighbors, with low infection rates as well.”
On a balmy evening this week at South Norwalk’s restaurant row, the challenges of enforcing social distancing as restrictions are relaxed were evident.
Opposite the SoNo sign on Washington Street, a few men were seated at Local Kitchen & Beer Bar, which has installed Plexiglas shields running the length of its centerpiece bar, with plenty of distance in between seats.
But in other places, dozens of patrons thronged outside service areas, squeezing in shoulder-to-shoulder at some tables that were otherwise spaced six feet apart. While bar and restaurant staff seemed to be properly masked in establishments, less could be said for many patrons.
David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said that the administration is still weighing the data rolling in on COVID-19 case rates, both in Connecticut and in other states in varying stages of reopening.
This week, the co-chair of the White House’s COVID-19 task force raised anew the issue of bars as potential hot spots for coronavirus transmission, with Florida, Texas and California among the states that have reimposed closures as cases have increased, turning back the reopening clock by weeks, if not months.
“We think there’s a preference for activities outdoors,” Lehman said. “But it’s really tough when people are drinking, when it comes to adhering to the rules.”
Wait and see
“I have definitely gotten calls from bar owners asking what they should do and I say to be as strict as we need to be,” Dolch said. “We need a chance to get back on our feet again. The good thing is that Phase 3 isn’t until around July 20 and there is still a lot of information we have to gather, so let’s let the July Fourth weekend play out and continue to protect our employees and customers, then on July, 6, 7, 8 we can start a conversation about Phase 3. No one’s in a business model of profitability.”
More Information
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AIRLINE LIQUOR - 6 |
|
AIRPORT AIRLINE CLUB LIQUOR - 1 |
|
AIRPORT BAR LIQUOR - 4 |
|
AIRPORT RESTAURANT LIQUOR - 1 |
|
BOAT LIQUOR - 15 |
|
BOWLING ESTABLISHMENT BEER AND WINE - 2 |
|
BOWLING ESTABLISHMENT LIQUOR - 26 |
|
BREW PUB LIQUOR - 7 |
|
CAFE LIQUOR - 826 |
|
CASINO LIQUOR - 2 |
|
CATERER - 293 |
|
CLUB LIQUOR - 354 |
|
COLISEUM CONCESSION BEER - 5 |
|
COLISEUM LIQUOR - 12 |
|
CONCESSION - 15 |
|
FARM BREWERY LIQUOR - 2 |
|
FARM DISTILLERY LIQUOR - 3 |
|
FARM WINERY LIQUOR - 47 |
|
GOLF COUNTRY CLUB LIQUOR - 7 |
|
HOTEL LIQUOR (10000 or less population) - 27 |
|
HOTEL LIQUOR (50000 or less population) - 56 |
|
HOTEL LIQUOR (50000 or more population) - 53 |
|
MANUFACTURER CIDER-LIQUOR - 11 |
|
MANUFACTURER FOR BEER AND BREW PUB - 96 |
|
MILITARY LIQUOR - 1 |
|
NON PROFIT CLUB LIQUOR - 96 |
|
NON PROFIT GOLF TOUR LIQUOR - 1 |
|
NON PROFIT PUBLIC ART LIQUOR - 9 |
|
NON PROFIT THEATER LIQUOR - 36 |
|
RACQUETBALL FACILITY LIQUOR - 1 |
|
RAILROAD LIQUOR - 3 |
|
RESORT LIQUOR - 1 |
|
RESTAURANT BEER - 22 |
|
RESTAURANT CATERER - 56 |
|
RESTAURANT LIQUOR - 1,936 |
|
RESTAURANT WINE & BEER - 700 |
|
SPECIAL OUTING FACILITY LIQUOR - 8 |
|
SPECIAL SPORTING FACILITY BAR LIQUOR - 3 |
|
SPECIAL SPORTING FACILITY CONCESSION LIQUOR - 4 |
|
SPECIAL SPORTING FACILITY GUEST LIQUOR - 1 |
|
SPECIAL SPORTING FACILITY RESTAURANT LIQUOR - 8 |
|
TAVERN LIQUOR - 77 |
|
UNIVERSITY BEER & WINE - 6 |
|
UNIVERSITY LIQUOR - 3 |
|
Total 4,845 |
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*Source: CT Department of Consumer Protection |
Lamont, speaking Thursday at Hammonasset State Park in Madison, said Connecticut data on infections and hospitalizations is important, but so is news from elsewhere, even as far away as the West Coast.
“If I hear the governor of California say opening bars in LA led to a big surge, because they went from a very low infection rate to a very high one, I think we get informed by that, don’t we?”
“I am going to err on the side of caution,” he said.
“I urge you to go outdoors. It’s just much, much safer. I think the bars are going to have to take a pause right now. Let’s get a little closer to showtime, then I can be exact.”
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For CT bar owners the wait likely will go on - CT Insider
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