State clears some bars, breweries to reopen
Breweries and distilleries that do not serve meals may open for outdoor service starting Saturday, according to new guidance released Thursday by the California Department of Public Health, which is also allowing bars to reopen in some counties for the first time in a year.
The updates to the state’s colored tier structure are the latest rejiggering of rules for opening businesses and allowing certain activities in California’s blueprint for economic recovery. State public health officials have been refining restrictions as they learn more about how the virus spreads and as more people are vaccinated.
There are four tiers in California’s reopening blueprint: purple, red, orange and yellow, from most restrictive to least. Previously, bars, breweries and distilleries not serving meals were closed in the two most restrictive tiers.
Under the new guidance, breweries and distilleries may open outdoors in the purple and red tiers even if they do not serve meals,
provided guests make reservations, observe a 90minute time limit and go home by 8 p.m. The rule also applies to wineries, though those already were able to open under the earlier guidance.
Bars that don’t serve food must remain closed in the purple and red tiers. But they can open for outdoor service starting Saturday, if their county is in the orange tier. They can open for modified indoor service in the yellow tier. Only three California counties currently are in the orange tier and one in the yellow tier; none are in the Bay Area.
The new rules provide some unexpected relief for Bay Area beer manufacturers who have been hit especially hard by the pandemic.
“This whole thing has been a quandary for us because it’s very difficult to be shut down,” said Rob Lightner, owner of East Brother Beer Co. brewery in Richmond. “We not only have an onsite taproom but we distribute out to a lot of bars and restaurants so we’ve been impacted in many ways.”
Like a large portion of the state’s 1,050 craft breweries, East Brother relies heavily on its taproom for most of its beer sales. Many breweries don’t distribute their beers to other restaurants, bars or stores at all. Shortly after shelterinplace orders took effect earlier in the year, a survey by the California Craft Brewers Association showed that breweries’ sales dropped by 43% on average.
“We’ve tried to keep the long view and take the shortterm hit, and suffer in the short term so that we could all get past this and benefit in the long term,” Lightner said. “It’s been rough for everyone mentally and emotionally.”
In December, a group of craft breweries sued Gov. Gavin Newsom, claiming that the state had discriminated against beer producers in its reopening plans. They pointed to the requirement that breweries had to serve food in order to reopen, which was a higher standard than was applied to the state’s wineries at the time.
California’s tier assignments are based on a county’s daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents and its positive test rate. To move to a less restrictive tier, counties must remain in their current tier for at least three weeks, plus report case and positive test rates that meet the nexttier criteria for two weeks.
Seven of the Bay Area’s nine counties are in the red tier. Contra Costa and Sonoma counties remain in the purple tier, though both are expected to move to red as early as Sunday. San Mateo County is poised to be the first Bay Area county to move to orange as early as next Tuesday. San Francisco could move to orange as soon as March 24, city leaders have said.
The change in guidance marks the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that Bay Area bars that don’t serve food will be allowed to reopen. Bars that serve food are subject to restaurant reopening rules.
“Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” said Ben Bleiman, owner of Soda Popinski’s and Teeth bar in San Francisco. “Our bars have been absolutely devastated. This is a welcome first step though. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel but it’s going to be years until we recover fully.”
The new guidance from the state also allows for overnight sleepaway camps to resume operations with restrictions as long as they are in the counties in the red, orange and yellow tiers.