DINING

Memphis bars can reopen after Shelby County Health Department eases COVID-19 restrictions

Shelby County health officials announced Tuesday that limited-service restaurants, what most would consider "bars," can reopen Wednesday adhering to the same restrictions as full-service restaurants.

Restrictions include:

  • No seating at physical bars
  • Alcohol must be served to patrons seated at a table and ordering food
  • Dining is limited to two hours per table
  • Alcohol sales must end at 10 p.m. nightly (curbside pick-up and delivery of food only can continue past 10 p.m.). 

Occupancy restrictions at businesses were lifted in the new health directive, but establishments are still bound to apply social distancing measures.

COVID-19:Health officials drop COVID-19 occupancy restrictions at all Shelby County businesses

Dr. Alisa Haushalter, Shelby County Health Department Director, said that one of the reasons they felt comfortable reopening bars is due to their increased contract tracing ability.

"We have actually added not only a lot of capacity to be able to respond if there is an outbreak associated with one bar, but we also have new data sets that allow us to more truly identify if there is an outbreak or transmission associated with a specific bar," she said in Tuesday's conference. "We can be laser focused."

Following the announcement, Alchemy owner Nick Scott said: "We're rallying the troops."

After being fully closed for several months (Alchemy decided not to offer take-out during the closure), he said "it will take a minute" to reopen. He, like many of the other closed bar owners, will need to find staff, restock the restaurant and retrain his employees. 

Daniel Masters, the owner of Silly Goose, said: "Being told I could stay open until 10 p.m. never sounded so good." His downtown limited-service restaurant has been serving to-go pizza while the bar was closed.

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"It's been a rough go for our industry for sure, but if we can do this right, we can hopefully continue to find more opportunity to serve our guests and pay our bills," Masters added. 

All limited-service restaurants across Memphis shut their doors on July 8. Any restaurant with a "limited service" license, meaning it had less than 50% in food sales, was mandated to close under a Shelby County Health Department directive issued on July 7. At that date, there were 42 restaurants in Memphis licensed by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission as "limited service."

In late August, bars closed by order of the Shelby County Health Department were given a chance to reopen — with a different type of liquor license, if approved by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Blind Bear Speakeasy was one of a handful of bars that chose to convert from being "limited service" to a "full service" restaurant. Owner Jeannette Comans said on Tuesday after the announcement that she will not go back to being a limited-service restaurant. "I am a full-service restaurant now," she said, noting that her new menu just debuted this week.

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At the Shelby County Health Department press conference on Sept. 15, Bruce Randolph, Shelby County Health Department Health Officer, said "I received numerous calls from limited-service restaurants. And I just want to tell the owners that I hear you understand the sacrifice that you made, and we will address that in some form or fashion."

Randolph added, "But understand that things will not go back to the way they were prior to closure. It is very like that whether you are full service or limited service you will be held to the same requirements as it relates to safety matters and how you operate."

The new Health Directive goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Sept.23.

Adult entertainment venues must remain closed.

Hookah and cigar bars were given additional restrictions, including only two patrons per booth, and those patrons must be from the same household. Proper ventilation and cleaning of equipment must take place between patrons.

COVID-19:A look at the 'tripwires' in Shelby County, governing openings and closings

Not all 'tripwires' met

In early August, the health department released tripwires — metrics that would govern enhanced or reduced public health restrictions for Shelby County. At the time, bars,  known as limited-service restaurants in licensing parlance, were closed.

To open, the health department in a health directive listed the following five criteria that would be used to consider when they would be allowed to reopen.

  • New cases over a one week period would have to average less than 180 cases per day based upon the date of testing
  • A downward trend line for 14 days
  • The rate of new cases would have to decrease by at least 30% per week over two consecutive weeks
  • The reproductive rate would have to be less than or equal to 1.0
  • The positivity rate would have to be less than or equal to 10%

Shelby County does not meet at least two, but as many as four, of the five metrics that govern reopening bars.

At present, the transmission number — the amount of people infected by each new case — is 1.1, which is greater than less than or equal to 1 as health directive 11 suggests it should be. The positivity rate was 12.5% last week, according to health department data.

Shelby County sits either just below or above 180 cases a day for the past week, depending on what data one looks at. On Monday, the raw seven day average of new cases was 196 and it dropped to 181 on Tuesday. During a news conference Tuesday, Haushalter said the case rate sat at about 177 cases a day.

The date-specific data, which corresponds to the date the test was administered, not the day it was reported, sits at 142 cases as of Sept. 15, the latest date available.

While that date-specific average, which is what the tripwires are intended to be considering, is well-below 180 cases a day, it does not represent a downward trend over 14 days, another tripwire measurement. Instead, it represents a mild increase from the date-specific 7-day average on Sept. 7, which was 116,  and the current mild growth seen in cases has disrupted a weekslong downward trend that began in mid-July and continued through early September.

The health department had not responded to a request for comment on the tripwires by the time of initial publication Tuesday.