Quarantinis anyone? Happy hours are going virtual
BOSTON — The hottest new bar’s dress code? Your sweatpants. And you don’t even have to leave your couch.
With bars shuttered and stressed-out workers stuck at home, companies and friend groups across the U.S. are holding happy hours over video chat to commiserate and keep spirits high amid the new coronavirus pandemic. In one community, neighbors are toasting to one another every night from the ends of their driveways to unwind — while keeping a safe distance, of course.
“Let’s be honest, we could all use a break and a drink right now,” said Nick Minerd, who recently took part in a virtual cocktail hour with more than 30 of his home-bound colleagues with Hendersonville, Tenn.-based STR, which provides data and analytics for the hospitality industry.
Video chat happy hours have popped up all over social media as communities have closed bars and banned large gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Emily Anderson, who runs an organization that connects moms in New York City, was forced to cancel all of her events because of the virus. Now she hosts weekly video chat happy hours to help moms “celebrate surviving another week of the Coronapocalypse” with a “quarantini.”
“On a good day, a lot of moms feel isolated, particularly new moms. … So now, more than ever, moms need one another’s support and camaraderie,” Anderson, founder of Mom Crew, said.
Even book clubs, game nights and support groups are going virtual.
Brian Koppelman, co-creator of the Showtime series “Billions,” said he and his friends played their weekly poker game using an app and chatting over Zoom video conferencing.
“It was a pretty great way to stay connected despite the distancing,” he tweeted.
In Montclair, N.J., a group of more than a dozen neighbors is taking a different approach with a nightly happy hour in front of their homes. It started with a text suggesting they all come outside one night and share a drink from afar, Gail Stocks said.
While each family stays in their own yard, they’ve sang happy birthday to those whose celebrations were spoiled by the virus and toast “to better times, but never better neighbors,” Stocks said. They plan to keep the tradition going until their lives go back to normal, she said.
“It’s keeping everyone’s spirits up,” Stocks said. “I was feeling very down around the late afternoon. … And by the time I came in the whole blues had lifted.”