California has released updated guidelines about when drinking establishments that don’t serve food may be able to reopen, and San Francisco bar owners say they’re a game changer.
California bars without food can now operate outdoors with modifications once the county they’re in reaches the state’s orange tier for reopening amid the pandemic.
“It’s a complete game changer, and it gives me a shot at actually being viable and staying in business,” Nikki DeWald, owner of Blondie’s Bar & No Grill in San Francisco’s Mission District, told KCBS Radio.
DeWald has been open for outdoor service in partnership with a nearby restaurant, but she said it’s expensive and she’d rather just be a bar.
Tony Nik’s in North Beach has been closed for a year and owner Mark Nicco is building a parklet, but won’t be rushing to open too soon.
“For us, it doesn’t make sense to open just outdoors,” he said. “We need at least 25 percent, to be inside also, to be able to make this work and bring people back to work.”
Bars will be able to open indoors at limited capacity once a county reaches the yellow tier.
These changes can’t come a moment too soon for Michael Spike Krouse, owner of Madrone Art Bar in NOPA.
“If we don’t start making money now, businesses are going to close,” he said. “It is not right, it is not fair. We need the opportunity to make money, otherwise we will drown.”
San Francisco could reach the orange tier within two weeks.
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