Late Thursday night, Florida’s Secretary of Department of Business and Professional Regulation Halsey Beshears announced on his Twitter page that bars will be allowed to reopen for onsite service beginning next Monday, Sept. 14.
“We are rescinding amended EO 20-09 from DBPR as of Monday,” tweeted BeShares. “Starting Monday, all bars will be reopened at 50% occupancy.”
Besides half-capacity, no other details were provided, like whether or not additional safety protocols would be required.
Many Florida bars and breweries have been limited to just package sales since June 26, however some establishments have been able to skirt the mandate by reopening with a 509 food service license that effectively turns a bar into a restaurant by offering food (one St. Petersburg brewery offers a Pint 'n' Pocket special, which pairs a brewski with a Hot Pocket).
Beshears has come under fire recently as some bar owners have called the loophole a straight up gimmick offered in lieu of a real plan to effectively combat the spread of COVID-19.
Last week, a day after she reopened her business, Becky Glerum, owner of Paddy Wagon Irish Pub in Plant City, told The News Service of Florida (NSF), “I didn’t do anything different but put a damn Crock-Pot on my bar."
Bars were previously allowed to reopen at 50% capacity on June 5, with patrons seated, following an order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But COVID-19 cases spiked three weeks later, prompting Beshears to rder a shutdown of “vendors licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, but not licensed to offer food service.”
As NSF points out, "At the time, Beshears blamed the uptick in coronavirus cases on 'younger individuals' who packed into bars, pubs or nightclubs and disregarded social-distance requirements that had allowed the establishments to reopen.
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This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2020.