Local bars to take a big hit on St. Pat’s
It’s St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday, but there could be a major lack of green at local bars due to the coronavirus global outbreak.
On Monday six Bay Area counties announced a “shelter in place” order for all residents. This order directs everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. This goes into affect on Tuesday morning at 12:01 a.m. and includes San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda.
Solano County, as well as Sonoma and Napa have not been ordered to shelter in place as of yet, but many local bars were fearing the economic hits they will take with few patrons or no patrons come Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, which usually brings in a lot of money for local taverns.
The Mare Island Brewing Co issued a statement on the doors of the Ferry Taproom saying they will only be doing onlineto-go pickup orders, which will be available 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily.
“The Governor speaks, and we we’ll do our part,” the statement reads. “We’ve also postponed all Coal Shed Events, including suspending our ongoing Sunday, ‘The Wet Mile.’ This too shall pass and when it does, we’ll be ready.”
A sign on the front door of The Relay Club in Vallejo said its bar is closed and “Hopefully we will reopen on April 1. Stay Healthy.”
However, some bars as of press time said it would at
tempt to stay open through at least Tuesday.
Alex Ameson, the bar manager at Rookies Sports Bar and Grill in Benicia, said that as of Monday afternoon the bar plans to remain open on Tuesday night, but with limited hours and workers.
“Right now we’re playing it by ear,” Ameson said. “Today we’re hanging out and doing a lot of deep cleaning that we would normally do on a Monday. We might close early today, but I’d like to try and stay open tomorrow, maybe just until 9:30 p.m. or something close to that.”
If Rookies does stay open, Ameson says the entire staff is taking all the right safety precautions.
“We’re keeping all the tables a safe distance from each other,” Ameson said. “We don’t have a hostess, but people come in and sit far apart from each other anyways. We’re using a
ton of sanitation and wiping down everything all the time … I’m washing my hands every 10-15 minutes and we have one of our servers going around with a spray bottle.”
Ameson said that on average, each day every worker takes home “a couple hundred bucks” on St. Pat’s. If the bar were to close, it could be devastating. The venue has already taken a hard hit due to the cancellation of March Madness as well as the NBA, MLB and NHL seasons being postponed.
“If we had to close for a few weeks, basically everyone here would probably have to file for unemployment,” Ameson said. “It’s tough. I’m really torn on what to do. A lot of people really rely on this job for income. But at the same time we want people to keep safe. A lot of people are coming in here saying they are going to live their life, but at the same time you have to be careful because they might already have it (the virus). So I’m really torn on the issue.”
Bottom of the Fifth in
Benicia will also stay open according to owner Bruce Adams. Adams said he’s cancelled the St. Pat’s festivities, saying he “doesn’t need a bunch of drunken fools anyways” but admitted that every day is important for his restaurant and bar.
“I mean we try to make a good living every day, not just St. Pat’s,” Adams said. “We will probably cut down our hours 35 to 40 percent. But I want the kids working
if they want to. Two thirds of my staff are on minimum wage. I just want to be able to pay them. I don’t care how much the place makes on the day.”
Adams said he took out “60 percent of the seats” in the venue and put them in a separate room.
“We’re disinfecting every menu and doing our best to be safe,” the owner said. “We’re having more of our food to go with a delivery service. We make a lot
of money on our food from 11 p.m. to midnight because we’re one of the only ones that does serve food at that time.”
In the end, Adams just had one thing on his mind.
“I just really want to do the right thing here. I really do,” Adams said.
Vallejo Police Department also sent out a press release last week saying “If you do plan to have a few cheers for St. Patrick’s Day, remember to plan ahead and have a designated sober driver take you home.”
VPD announced it will have extra officers on duty looking for drivers suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
In 2018, 73 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday period.
“If you need to ask yourself whether you are okay to drive, the answer is probably no,” Vallejo Police Lt. Michael Nichelini said in the same press release.