Closing time again: New COVID rules hit bar owners again

Local bar owners are frustrated.
Their businesses, which already have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions, had their operations curtailed even more as of 12:01 a.m. Monday via a proclamation by Gov. John Bel Edwards as the state tries to get a better handle on the coronavirus spread.
Now, bars only are allowed to have to-go or delivery service, something three local bar owners said is not feasible.
“You think about it: You work all day, you don’t want to drive by a bar and have somebody run you out a beer,” said Nathan Bourque, who has owned Timmy T’s for a little over a year. “You want to meet with your buddies or sit down and see how everybody’s week was or how was your day at work and have a cocktail or a cold beer.”
With the new restrictions, employees will have to draw unemployment, and bar owners will have to absorb the costs of their supplies, too, the local owners said.
“We’re going to have lost product,” said Pool Do’s owner Jason Romero, who recently celebrated two years in business. “We have lost revenue, and we still have bills to pay. To a company like us that always has our hands out helping whoever we possibly can, it’s not fair. At the end of the day, it’s just … not fair, and what can we do about it?”
The bars also have fixed costs that don’t go away with the temporary shutdown.
“If history repeats itself, two weeks turns into four weeks, turns into six weeks, and it continues,” said Mama G’s owner Keith Leonard.
While Leonard said some area bars may be a “little bit more congested,” he said a lot of the area bars obey the rules.
“This is their livelihood,” he said.
While Romero also has the option of keeping his pool hall open, he said he doesn’t have enough business to justify it.
With his bar closed at times during the last four months, Bourque said, he has missed out on big business days from St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo and also will miss out on the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which has been canceled and is a big boom for his business.
The local bar owners also said there wasn’t help for them, either, in some of the programs the government offered.
Leonard, former regional president of MidSouth Bank, said that while the stimulus dollars helped employees, the other money he saw was awarded to bigger businesses.
“However, the small business owner and the small bar room owner did not have anything out there that they could really take advantage of,” Leonard said.
Romero said if he had to keep his bar closed, he understands.
“If you’re telling me I can’t and I’m the reason, I don’t want to be the reason why this virus blows up and thousands of people in St. Mary Parish get sick,” he said.
However, Romero said he should be compensated for closing.
“So your compensation is ‘go get a loan.’ That’s not compensation. … So then I just pay back over years and years? How can I ever get ahead? It’s not fair,” he said.
Romero also questioned what the difference is between a grocery store and a bar where a bottle of hand sanitizer could be grabbed and put down before the next person does the same thing in either place.
“They’re saying that this virus can sometimes live 5-7 days on different surfaces, so what really is the difference. … There’s no difference there, and what makes me more mad than anything is the fact that you single out one business without giving them any type of restitution,” Romero said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting Louisiana, nearly 40 outbreaks involving bars, affecting more than 400 people, have occurred, according to the release by Edwards’ office announcing Saturday’s new restrictions.
“Public health officials believe going to bars is a higher public health risk than visiting other types of businesses because people are socializing and cannot wear masks when they drink,” the release said. “In addition, young people under the age of 30 make up the largest percentage of new COVID cases in Louisiana.”
Romero agreed it would be hard to drink wearing a mask, but he also questioned the state’s policy on restaurants.
“But what’s the difference in a restaurant? How do you eat through it?” he asked.
He said if the masks work, why can’t they just be worn in bars and it be business as usual.
As for what could be done for a compromise, Leonard said maybe having 25% capacity with Phase One with a limit on hours of operations and no weekend hours. He said he thinks the large gathering of younger people in Phase Two “that didn’t adhere to the plan” is where the concern is.
While he said he wasn’t making any money with the 25% capacity at Phase One, he said he was paying his bills.
Regardless, Leonard said his business is not closing.
“We’ve got some rainy days ahead of us, and we’ve had some that came before us, so we’re going to be here at the end and make 20 years and make 20 more after that hopefully,” he said.