Focus on Kerry’s bar industry Pubs fear the future even after lockdown
PUBLICANS across the county are increasingly anxious about their immediate future, with many expressing serious doubts about whether they can or will reopen their doors when restrictions are lifted.
As it stands, pubs are due to be allowed reopen on August 10 – though many publicans feel this is highly likely to be delayed – with strict limits on customer numbers as a result of the extensive social distancing measures that will be required.
In recent weeks, online ‘zoom’ meetings between publicans in various Kerry towns have been a regular occurrence.
Given the present situation, that is hardly surprising, but what is telling is the number of publicans taking part who rarely, if ever, attended such group discussions in the past.
Clearly the county’s publicans are extremely nervous about what lies ahead – with good reason – and following conversations with numerous pub owners in recent days, a handful of key issues have emerged.
The main and most obvious issue is what restrictions will be placed on pubs when they are eventually allowed to reopen their doors.
At present there are only vague guidelines leaving publicans with little to work with as they try to work out a plan to adapt their premises and how it can be run in line with the stringent restrictions that are expected.
Publicans face a myriad of issues from the immediately obvious – how to divide space and separate customers – to more subtle, but no less important, problems.
For example: how are toilets to be managed, and what of smoking areas?
Will all customers have to have their temperature checked and, if so, how will that be managed?
There’s also the issue of table service and bookings.
When they reopen, Ireland’s normally casual pubs will have to be run in a manner more akin to managing a restaurant without food, a situation which poses its own difficulties.
While many bars have a thriving food trade, a large number of publicans in Kerry will have to familiarise themselves with the specifics of table management, bookings and a new way of billing.
Even the smallest bars will require a major rethink in how they are run, with staff given highly specific roles. To give one example, one bartender could be restricted to taking orders, delivering drinks and washing glasses, with another doing nothing but pouring pints and having no interaction with customers.
It’s a simple set up in theory, but it would require careful management and supervision to ensure its operated properly.
With publicans forced to act more like maitre d’s, Irish pubs will be very different places to what people are used to.
With all those changes and restrictions, more and more publicans – like hoteliers – are asking if it’s worth reopening at all until after the crisis has passed.
Again ,the issue of space is key. Though larger bars have an advantage, they will still be severely hamstrung.
In Tralee, for example, the town’s biggest bars would still only have enough space to accommodate between 30 and 40 patrons. With the need to have at least five staff on duty, even a night where the pub was at full capacity would barely be worthwhile by the time all running costs are met.
Then there’s the tricky issue of who you actually let in.
Dealing with a group of four to six is no problem, but what about a regular that arrives on their own.
Do you give them a table and risk not having space for a group later, or does the publican turn their loyal customer away?
Keeping a table aside for regulars is an option, but what if they don’t arrive on a given night or – as can so often happen – they simply don’t get on?
As one publican explained: “You can have two lovely easy going fellas who, for some reason, just hate each other. You put them sitting at a table together and you’ll never see either of them again”.
These are problems many smaller pubs would probably be only too happy to have.
For a lot of small pubs and bars, the social distancing rules will make businesses untenable with their premises only legally able to hold a handful of customers while still needing extra staff.
The numbers simply don’t add up.
With all that in mind, it’s easy to see why publicans are so anxious.
Most of the pub owners that spoke to The Kerryman are confident they will reopen – though many expect that might not be until September – but a number of them, mostly the owners of smaller bars, said they were highly unlikely to open their doors before Christmas.
Kerry’s publicans are, for the most part, cautiously optimistic, but most view the campaign to get pubs open by June 29 as grossly unrealistic.
Indeed many are furious with the approach taken by the VFI and the comments coming from some of Dublin’s most prominent publicans.
The publicans that spoke to The Kerryman simply want to get back to work; bring back their staff and open their doors to the communities for whom they so often act as a focal point.
Instead they fear they are being viewed as unscrupulous and greedy profiteers with no regard for public health.
One publican said the campaign to get pubs open earlier had been a PR disaster that risked alienating the public.
“The pubs were the first to shut, and we did it without being asked. We’re doing our bit and we’re happy to do it. This thing of trying to get open in June is madness. It won’t happen, and all it does is make us all look like greedy b*st*rds who don’t give a s**t about people. It’s like the drink-driving thing all over again.”