‘Really hard news.’ Reeling bars and restaurants brace for new WA COVID restrictions

There will be no alcohol after 10 p.m., no indoor drinking at bars or breweries and no dinner with friends unless outside, according to Gov. Jay Inslee’s adjustments to Washington’s Safe Start plan announced Thursday.

The updated rules tighten Phase 3 restrictions on capacity and roll back existing allowances in Phase 2. They take effect July 30.

Full-service restaurants must cut alcohol service at 10 p.m., and only up to five members of the same household will be permitted to dine indoors. Otherwise, guests must sit outside.

Party size will now be restricted to five people in counties regardless of phase, and Phase 3 capacity has been cut to 50 percent. In that regard, Phase 2 now matches Phase 3.

Businesses with a tavern license (meaning they sell only beer and wine but not food), as well as breweries, wineries and distilleries, will not be permitted to seat guests indoors unless they also hold a restaurant license or endorsement. Restaurants can continue to seat indoors with existing social distancing and mask requirements.

These new restrictions don’t have a re-evaluation date, Gov. Inslee said in response to a reporter’s question at the press conference.

“I can’t give you a magic number for that because we’ve got to look at what has been the trend,” he said, adding that two weeks is “the most minimal time period where you can really recognize a trend.”

It will take weeks for the July 7 masking mandate to reap benefits, he continued.

The changes for indoor seating at bars will be particularly hard for businesses to swallow.

A brewery taproom, for instance, that does not offer outdoor seating must now return to sales of packaged beer to be consumed off-premise.

Ken Thoburn, co-owner of Tacoma’s Wingman Brewers, expressed dismay at the rollback directed less at the governor and more at customers and businesses not taking the existing rules seriously.

“The result is that the whole industry and community as a whole is suffering because of a few people (who) just don’t get it,” he told The News Tribune in a text message.

The Dome District brewery, which opened Little Radio, a full-service restaurant in downtown Tacoma less than two weeks ago, will return to curbside pickup and local delivery, while continuing to invest in its website and online ordering systems.

In an email to members shortly after the governor’s announcement, the Washington Brewers Guild said it would continue to fight alongside the state’s wine trade group and hospitality association for “the same treatment as our partners in the restaurant industry.”

“It is the state’s hope that by limiting activities where the risk of exposure is the highest, we can make the progress necessary to contain COVID-19 in Washington,” the statement read. “While we agree this effort is critical to the health of our communities, we strongly believe that breweries have demonstrated that we are able to comply with all COVID-19 restaurant reopening requirements and that we are committed to the health and safety of their employees and patrons.”

The Washington Hospitality Association also expressed disappointment and emphasized that the rule-followers across the state are now paying for charlatans’ mistakes.

“Today brings really hard news,” said president and CEO Anthony Anton in a statement provided to The News Tribune. “It likely means the end of some of our favorite places in Washington.”

That Inslee felt it necessary to introduce these rollbacks means the state is “moving in the wrong direction,” he said.

“To save our small businesses, we must beat this virus. We must bring our employees back to work and reopen our economy. We must demonstrate compliance and commitment in all phases — compliance by our industry and also by our guests. Now is the time to unite. Wear a mask today: Save a job, save a dream, save a small business.”

Just hours earlier, Anton spoke in the association’s inaugural town hall, hosted in tandem with Travel Tacoma. The virtual event welcomed members and business owners, state lawmakers and other industry stakeholders to discuss the state of COVID-19 hospitality.

“Most of our members are small businesses that are chasing a dream,” said Anton in his opening remarks.

At the height of the pandemic lockdown, about half of hospitality workers in Pierce County alone, including both restaurant and hotel workers, lost their jobs. As businesses have reopened, only 20 percent of those employees have returned to work, he said.

Julia Gorton, the association’s director of government affairs, added that the unemployment system has been unduly strained by the coronavirus.

“The system was not intended to become such a significant lifeline and safety net during a worldwide pandemic,” she said in the Thursday town hall. She warned of insolvency and a dire nail in the coffin of both state and federal tax revenues without additional relief.

Restaurant leaders across the country, in collaboration with Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, have pushed for an industry-specific, $120 billion relief package, called the Restaurants Act.

John Lane, who manages local government affairs for the state hospitality association, said in the town hall that the legislation had lost steam in Congress.

“PPP is where most of the energy is right now,” he said, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program passed in the CARES Act.

Other industries, he added, believe the per-location allowance in the March bill — opening the funding to chains with less than 500 employees per restaurant, for example — gave hospitality businesses a distinct advantage. Now, they want the same treatment, he said.

Anton cautioned that restaurants are nowhere near out of the woods.

Compounding the persistent unemployment in the industry is the fact that quick-service and fast-food has suffered far less consequential losses, meaning locally-owned, independent bars and restaurants are feeling the brunt of the downturn.

“It’s been brutal, and we know that,” said Anton, adding that most Washington state restaurants won’t turn a profit for at least another year and more than a third could close by the end of 2020.

He anticipates the state hovering in a Phase 3 scenario until next spring — and that was before Gov. Inslee’s Thursday afternoon announcement.

Noting record cases in Florida, the governor defended the rule changes.

“We just can’t wait, because once the pandemic gets to a certain level, it’s out of control and it’s just too late,” he said. “You can’t reel it back in. So that’s why we had to take these steps now.”

None of Washington’s 39 counties have entered Phase 4, while 17 counties are in Phase 3 and 17 in Phase 2. Five counties remain in modified versions of Phase 1.

The new Safe Start rules also mandate that businesses with game areas such as pool tables, darts and video games must close until Phase 4.

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This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Really hard news.’ Reeling bars and restaurants brace for new WA COVID restrictions."