For Ellis Winstanley, margaritas came to the rescue.
When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a COVID-19 emergency order last spring banning restaurants from offering dine-in service, takeout was still permitted. That included alcohol.
Business was slow at first at Winstanley’s restaurant, El Arroyo in Austin.
“Then we launched margaritas to go,” Winstanley told the Lone Star Standard. “We were probably one of the first ones in Texas to do it. Revenue took off.”
Business was so good, El Arroyo began hiring employees from other restaurants who were out of work, Winstanley said.
“El Arroyo is above where it had been traditionally, revenue wise,” he said.
But Winstanley can’t say the same for a bar he owns.
Abbott has still not allowed bars to reopen. He issued a Sept. 17 order that said, “Only restaurants that have less than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages, and whose customers eat or drink only while seated, may offer dine-in services.”
It further said, “People shall not visit bars or similar establishments that hold a permit from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission [TABC] and are not restaurants as defined above.”
The governor said bars are “nationally recognized as COVID-spreading locations,” the Texas Tribune reported.
Winstanley’s bar, Cain and Abel's, remains open because it serves food but business is not great, he said.
“Our bar is just kind of bumping along,” he said.
It has 12 tables and customers must be seated at the tables, not standing, which prevents them from mingling as they would normally do at a bar.
"Everybody has to sit down the whole time, they can’t be near each other, they can’t stand up and talk, ” Winstanley said. “If they don’t sit down, code enforcement comes by and tells them to sit down if we don’t tell them first. The bar has been very challenging.”
He worries about the long-term implications for restaurants and bars from the shutdown.
Expenses have increased for cleaning and sanitation services, he said, and simply keeping the doors open is not sustainable in the long term, particularly if owners can’t afford to spend money on maintenance and other expenses.
“If you don’t reinvest in businesses, especially businesses that have high wear and tear on them, they eventually die,” Winstanley said. “Even the people who survive this, their businesses might be fundamentally damaged.”
He also worries about others in the restaurant and bar ecosystem who might be damaged long term by the COVID-19 shutdown.
“Vendors that are stiffed, landlords that don’t have money to reinvest or build more stuff,” he said. “There is a lot of unseen damage.”
