Last call for alcohol now at 11
Early closing time will be ‘devastating’ for Niagara bars and restaurants, owners warn
New provincial rules directing bars to stop serving booze at 11 p.m. means late-night revellers will carry on their festivities at homes and other places where there is no enforcement, says a Niagara Falls bar owner.
Eric Martin, owner of Taps on Queen Street, said although his establishment is open past midnight normally, the change in time means he and his staff “have to try to squeeze more business into shorter hours.”
This may not have the effect the government is looking for, he said Saturday, a few hours before the new rules came into effect, that doors must be closed by midnight, an hour after last call.
“The people who want to stay out late and party will just go home where there is no rules and no social distancing at all. At Taps, we are taking this pandemic seriously by going beyond the regulations with extra sanitizing, table spacing and contact tracing. We are very concerned for our staff and customers safety,” he said.
COVID-19 has been a “real struggle” for bars and restaurants, he said.
“The extra sanitizing, customer tracking and equipment needed is very costly,” said Martin.
Business is down significantly, and most places he’s talked to in Niagara are doing less than 50 per cent of their normal sales.
“Many people just won’t go out and we can’t offer as many of the events that drew people in at times when we weren’t busy with dining customers.
“This also really hurts the musicians, artists and vendors and supporting staff we had on a regular basis at Taps.”
Steve Kellerman, owner of Local on Main Street in Niagara Falls, said his establishment has a loyal client base that consists of service industry employees from the “already beaten” Niag
ara tourist sector.
“These servers and cooks are now getting back on their feet and come in after their shift is over for food and drink. This is a large percentage of our nightly sales. The new curfew is going to be devastating.”
Kellerman believes his restaurant and others like should not be roped into the same boat as larger municipalities with greater rates of infection.
“These measures unfairly hurt small business,” he said.
At any given moment, under physical distancing measures, his bar can have a maximum of 15 patrons inside at once, but at any given moment, Walmart can have 300 people in at once, he noted.
He said this compares like “apples and oranges” and that small business is “low-hanging fruit being consumed in order for the province to appear proactive while actually doing nothing” to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“Unless, of course, there is new evidence, not privy to the public, that the virus has now decided to only come out nightly after 11 p.m.”
Mike Scott, owner of Scorecard Harry’s in St. Catharines, even though his establishment has been closing between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. during the pandemic, fully supports the early closing time — especially across the province and not just regionally.
If bars in Toronto and Hamilton closed early but Niagara watering holes were still serving until the early morning hours, it would draw people from those areas, places with more cases of the virus.
This measure will “get it under control quicker,” he said.
“We’ve got to do something, and this might be one of the avenues,” he added.
Kabita Lahar, a patron at Trust Beer Bar on Saturday, said she feels bad for bars and restaurants having to constantly make changes, but agreed that cutting people off early will be effective.
“People get drunk and careless, not following the rules,” she said.
Jevan Elia, co-owner of Tailgates in Welland, said his team has been “very lucky” to have a client base that follows the rules, and aren’t really the demographic that stays out past midnight.
But as a sports bar, some patrons may have to rush home for overtime or games that go longer than average.
“It might be a little rough to let people go if the game’s not finished,” he said.