SARASOTA – BRADENTON (WSNN) – Bars on the Suncoast are ready to pop some bottle caps and corks and welcome customers back.
For nearly three months, bar owners have felt the frustration.
“A lot of tears, a lot of worries,” Gator Lounge & Package co-owner and manager, Denise (Neicee) Flint, said. “How am I going to pay this, how am I going to pay that? Last night, I just felt like a million pounds was lifted off my shoulders. I finally felt like me again.”
Gator Lounge & Package in Bradenton has been closed since March 17th. Flint says in her 35 years of working in bars, she’s never been away for this long. Flint says the only thing helping them stay alive was their package store.
She says luckily, they’ve had consistent paychecks coming in, but they rely on tips heavily.
“Our paychecks go towards our bills, and our tips is what we live on,” Flint said.
Papa Joe’s Sports Bar and Scalawags in Sarasota is close to devastation. They’re family-owned businesses, Father, Sid Harris, and son, Joe Harris, run the bars together. Joe says the Paycheck Protection Program money ran out last week and has had to pay his employees out of pocket.
“It’s just a downward trickle; it hurts everybody,” Joe said.
Joe and Flint say they were frustrated when bars didn’t open in Phase 1. Joe organized protests and wrote letters to the governor and county commissioners.
“And nobody knew anything, there were no answers,” Joe said. “I guess the unknown was the worst part.”
“We thought it was Phase one, two, and three,” Flint said. “We didn’t know it was Phase one, A, B, and C, and then two, three.”
So needless to say, Joe and Flint are ‘buzzing’ with excitement to reopen.
“We’re a small bar, and we have pretty regular clientele and I miss my peeps,” Flint said.
“All our customers are family,” Joe said. “I mean they come in here with their problems, they go to the hospital, we go see them. We’ve all become family, so we miss our people.”
The bars will operate at 50% capacity, tables separated according to CDC guidelines, and enhanced sanitation methods will be in place.
These bar owners have made renovations, and say they’re excited to surprise their customers. It’s finally time to move virtual happy hour back to a real happy hour.