North Carolina can reopen its bars now. But here’s why many are still closed.
It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere and for the first time in seven months that actually meant something for bars in North Carolina.
The state moved into Phase 3 of its reopening plan Friday at 5 p.m., allowing private bars to open at 30 percent of their outdoor capacity.
But after being closed since March, Triangle bars are reopening with more of a whimper than a bang.
Many bars owners in the Triangle are saying they’ll sit out this opening weekend, either to work on their own reopening plan, or because they say the current restrictions make reopening infeasible.
“It’s a very small step in the right direction,” said Zack Medford, who owns several bars in downtown Raleigh. “Unfortunately the way things stand it’s not viable for us right now. It’s not as simple as unlocking the doors and saying come on out.”
Medford is the president of the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association, which unsuccessfully sued North Carolina earlier this year to reopen bars. The group took an informal poll this week, Medford said, and of 51 respondents, 50 said they wouldn’t immediately open.
Medford said he won’t be opening his bars this weekend and that while Phase 3 is a positive step for the bar industry, he hopes there’s more to come.
“It’s a sign the Governor’s office is willing to do something to help these bars,” Medford said. “But the rent was due yesterday. I hope we can build on the state’s decision....We still have a very very long way to go.”
In May when North Carolina moved into Phase 2, restaurants were able to reopen at 50% capacity, but bars were ordered to remain closed. Since then, bar owners have asked to be treated like restaurants. But in lawsuits and press briefings, North Carolina officials have argued that the behavior of people in bars, loud talking in close quarters, creates a higher risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Brief reopening in June
In June, a handful of downtown Raleigh bars opened up for one night, but were later sent letters from the Alcohol Law Enforcement agency saying they were operating illegally and risking their liquor license.
Bar owner Dan Lovenheim received one of those letters for reopening Cornerstone Tavern. He said he doesn’t plan to reopen any of his bars this weekend and may wait up to two weeks.
“Because of the non-clarity of the law, we’re going to stay closed for a couple weeks to see exactly how we need to be in compliance,” Lovenheim said. “I’ve been closed for seven months, so what’s another couple weeks?”
The Phase 3 executive order allows bars to only open for outdoor space. If a bar has a stated outdoor capacity, it can operate at 30 percent of that, or 100 people, whichever is less. Otherwise, the bar can serve only seven people per 1,000 square feet of outdoor space.
Lovenheim’s Cornerstone Tavern is one of the state’s largest private bars, most of which is outdoors.
But Friday night, Cornerstone sat dark and empty on Glenwood Avenue.
For months now, Raleigh’s bar scene has shifted to restaurants. North Carolina is still under an 11 p.m. alcohol curfew, but up and down Glenwood on Friday night, restaurants had lines of customers waiting to get in.
At Dram & Draught, a cocktail bar at the corner of Glenwood and Morgan Street, nearly a dozen outdoor tables were set up on a wide patio, serving the bar’s first customers in months. Across the street, a Trolly Pub stopped for a moment, its passengers blurting out a chorus of “Woos.”
“It’s better than what it was, but we’re still not open,” said Dram & Draught co-owner Kevin Barrett of North Carolina’s Phase 3 rules. “It’s not a break-even moment. We can’t ride this out for the next few months. Hopefully this is just a toe in the water.”
‘Feeling the crunch’
William and Company bar owner Liliana Ballance picked up a liquor order Friday afternoon but said her popular cocktail bar on Person Street wouldn’t open until possibly Sunday. The bar has made its last couple rent payments with pop-up events at Raleigh restaurants. Under Phase 3, Ballance said the bar can have 14 outdoor seats.
“It’s going to be very challenging, we’re trying to just make enough to pay my staff and myself,” Ballance said. “No one’s making money. I mean, we sell $2 Tecates, and I can’t take that away. We just hope everyone will be patient with us. We want to be open and make it work.”
Ballance said being closed for seven months pushed her to consider if this was the end for William & Company, saying that savings couldn’t float it for the rest of the year. The bar is intimate and cozy, serving warm spiked cider sometimes when it’s cold. Ballance said she understood why small bars like hers were kept closed, though that hasn’t made anything any easier.
“I wasn’t against (keeping bars closed),” Ballance said. “But we didn’t get any help. And now COVID relief is over. I’m just trying to have a positive attitude.”
In Hillsborough, Eryk Pruitt was elated to be able to open his Yonder Bar, a space he had kept open as a retail shop for beer and wine sales. Pruitt has been critical of North Carolina’s treatment of bars compared to restaurants, but said he’s happy to give it a shot in Phase 3.
“It’s by no means perfect, but I told myself, if we’re able to open in some capacity I would not complain until 2021,” Pruitt said.
Yonder will operate with seated-only service, Pruitt said, with no one allowed to mill at the bar. Phase 3, he said, couldn’t have waited much longer.
“I was feeling the crunch,” Pruitt said. “Another month, as we’re entering winter, I was thinking there wasn’t going to be a bar here....You know how the song goes, ‘I’ve been down so long, this looks like up to me.’ We’ll take what we can get.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 10:12 AM.
