'Time to move forward': Pinellas bar, brewery owners meet with Florida governor to discuss challenges
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - In the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, where craft breweries are known to thrive and beer-lovers consistently congregated in the pre-COVID days, business owners had a one-on-one with Governor Ron DeSantis about their struggles during the pandemic.
During a visit to Green Bench Brewing Company, bar and brewery owners said they are starting to see consumer confidence building and want to move forward, but the past few months have been rough.
Pete Boland, owner of The Galley, which temporarily closed once after at least one employee tested positive for the coronavirus, said while his bar has seen more delivery orders, he wants to help create more guest confidence.
"It's OK to have fun." he said. "People need to mitigate and take care of themselves. I think individual responsibility needs to rule the day. We got to get back to work. We got to let people know it's OK. Life does have some inherent risk but…we want to give them a reason to smile in this crazy year."
Boland said he has started noticing more out-of-towners visiting, such as from Illinois, California and New York.
The owner of Mastry's Brewing Co, Matthew Dahm, agreed, adding that there are many independently-owned businesses along the Gulf coast and owners are ready to welcome back customers -- safely.
"When they closed down Pinellas County beaches, it become ghost town for a lot of our businesses," Dahm explained. "It's going to take a very long time for it to come back."
DeSantis said closing down beaches is a move that shouldn't happen again, and believes the decision for the closures was "hype-based."
"We have to focus on evidence-based and not do things like that," he said. "That is something we shouldn't repeat. That is not a driver [of the virus]. I think going forward I think people have understood that going forward."
He said he held the roundtable discussion as the state continues to determine a safe way to reopen bars and breweries without spreading the virus.
Thursday's meeting comes two months after bars and breweries were forced to shutter their doors for a second time during the pandemic.
Back in March, on St. Patrick's Day, Florida closed all bars, but some breweries eventually reopened, specifically the ones that serve food or have a food truck on property.
On June 3, DeSantis announced phase two of reopening the state could begin, and bars were allowed to reopen -- but it was shortlived.
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When coronavirus cases began surging in the Sunshine State, mainly among young adults, a short tweet from Halsey Beshears, secretary of the state's Department of Business & Professional Regulation, read that on-site consumption of alcohol must be suspended. At that point, bars had only reopened for a couple of weeks.
Since then, bars and breweries had to find ways to survive. Many had to seek food-service licenses in order to operate as a restaurant and reopen their doors at 50% capacity.
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It was a struggle, with some business owners having to face the inevitable and close for good.
During the roundtable, DeSantis said he understands the urgency to help bars and brewery owners. He said the state will look at its finances to see how they can provide assistance to businesses that cannot "practice their trade" due to the pandemic restrictions.
"If the government is telling you, you can't do this, how are you going to make it work?" he said. "You provide a venue for people to engage in normal social interaction. I just worry that when we talk about things like the social distancing, how long of a period is that natural for people? What is the effects of people not having a traditional interaction?"
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