Liverpool, N.Y. -- Jim Nichols owns Sharkey’s Bar & Grill on Route 57 in Liverpool. He’s doing his best to follow the limits and restrictions during the current phase of restaurant reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He admits he’s got some advantages: His bar/entertainment venue is big enough, indoors and out, to accommodate lots of tables spaced six feet apart and maintain 50% capacity or less. He and all his staff wear masks. He’s even had good luck convincing customers to do the same.
“Almost without exception, our customers here do everything we’ve asked them since we reopened,” he said. “They will do it. No one has given us a hard time.”
It’s not always easy. “People forget, and they’ll get too close or get up from the table without a mask,” he said. “I get it. We all want to get back to normal. But we have say to them, ‘These are the rules.' "
So he finds it frustrating when he stops by another place and see something completely different. It happened Saturday night at a bar Nichols prefers not to name.
“I was appalled, dismayed, and sickened by what I saw,” he wrote in a long and passionate post on Facebook this week. “The place was packed with wall-to-wall people, and not one person wearing a mask. Most of the staff were wearing their masks as chin straps. People were leaning into the bar area over the ice-well and bottles to order a drink, and from staff member who was not wearing the mask correctly. It looked like it was the summer of 2019 instead of our pandemic world. It bordered on negligence.”
Nichols titled his post “A Plea to All Restaurants and Bars.”
“I have always worried only about my own business, as that is all I can control, and I have not worried about other establishments,” he wrote. “But in this case, as I scanned the crowd of people, I recognized a good number of people who also come to my place including a good friend -- none with a mask. They could very easily be at my place the next day or the next week.
“Do not get me wrong, I like to drink and have a good time, but we can do it safely. I have customers telling me to relax, so and so bar isn’t making people do it, do not worry about it. That is exactly the problem. We all need to do it.”
He ended with this thought: “Sharkey’s will continue to put in the effort and do the best we can and that is all we can do. We ask for your help and compliance, as we are all in this together.”
Nichols note touched a chord. Customers and fellow bars owners alike thanked him.
“... Based on your practices and your excellent post we will make it a point to return to Sharkey’s often and promote it to others as well,” customer Jim Jurista responded in a Facebook comment. “Integrity is what you do when nobody else is looking and it sounds like you are knocking it out of the park.”
But there’s more to the story. Nichols titled that section “A PLEA to NY State.”
It began the first week of reopening, when someone complained to Onondaga County officials about Sharkey’s Thursday Night Bike Night -- an outdoor concert series that hadn’t even happened yet but was scheduled to start that week. He got a call from someone in the county attorney’s office.
“I felt comfortable we could handle it, and I asked him to please come out and walk through with me on our set up, which he did, and he gave me some good suggestions that we implemented,” Nichols posted. “This is how it should work. Our government should be there to help us and to guide us so we can all be successful.”
Nichols said he thought that Thursday’s event went well.
“I had someone at each entrance letting patrons know the rules and making sure they entered our property with a mask on properly,” he wrote. “I spent my entire time walking around ensuring people had their masks on, and reminding them that they needed to have masks on if walking or standing, masks off if they were seated, etc. It was exhausting.”
The next day, however, he got a call from a New York State Liquor Authority inspector. That agency had received a complaint and the inspector had conducted a 10-minute “walk-through,” during which he found people standing at a high-top table without masks. (The current rules say customers must wear masks except while seated.)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order last week warning that SLA inspectors now have the power to issue immediate penalties -- including license suspension -- to bars that violate the rules. Until then, a violation set in motion a penalty process that could take weeks.
“That (the people standing at the high-top) normally would be a warning but (the SLA) was instructed to fine people instead because NYS wanted to send a message,” Nichols wrote in his Facebook post. “I was heartbroken, and I told the inspector that if what we did last night was not sufficient, then there is no way we could even be open, as we did everything possible to follow the rules. The inspector said (he) agreed, and said he saw a lot of good things and left us with a warning.”
In an interview this week, Nichols said he appreciated the SLA employee’s willingness to compromise.
“I understand the rules and we all want to get beyond this,” he said. “We’re just looking for rules that make sense and are logical."
In a briefing Monday, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon addressed some of the issues surrounding the enforcement of the rules, which Cuomo has said will fall heavily on local government agencies.
“We are doing the best we can,” McMahon said, citing budget cuts and short staffing. “People are breaking the rules. We are enforcing it. We are trying to get to everybody. The reality is, is we can’t get to everybody when it’s happening. So then we go back at it the next day, when we get the complaints.”
One of those fellow business owners who reposted Nichols’ message was Julie Briggs Leone, co-owner of the 443 Social Club & Lounge, an bar/entertainment venue that has not yet reopened since the coronavirus. She has been outspoken about the trials facing business owners.
She echoed Nichol’s sentiments, perhaps aiming a little more forcefully at those who don’t want to abide by the restrictions.
“Nobody wants to follow you around to remind you to follow the rules and we aren’t going to risk our liquor license and livelihood so you can prove a point about your ‘freedom',” she wrote. “Newsflash: Freedom comes with responsibility. Want live music to come back? Want your favorite venue to reopen? Want some semblance of normal? Get your &*$% together people and DO YOUR PART.”
Here’s is Nichols full post:
Here’s is Leone’s full follow-up:
MORE ON BARS
Cuomo: State can now shut down rule-breaking bars immediately
Cuomo’s threat to bars: 18 licenses have already been yanked
Barkeepers’s dilemma: How do I run my place if I have to keep people six feet apart?
MORE ON CORONAVIRUS
Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources
Restarting NY: State issues rules for youth and adult sports, skills camps, yoga, tennis
What CNY schools could look like in fall: Fewer in classes, staggered days, temp checks
Coronavirus in NY: Deaths fall to new low since peak, hospitalizations down
Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
"follow" - Google News
June 23, 2020 at 11:28PM
https://ift.tt/2BB7aah
Frustrations rise for bar owners who follow rules while others don’t: ‘A huge problem’ - syracuse.com
"follow" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pbZ1k
https://ift.tt/35rGyU8
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Frustrations rise for bar owners who follow rules while others don’t: ‘A huge problem’ - syracuse.com"
Post a Comment