BEAVERCREEK — Restaurant and bar owners gathered in Beavercreek Thursday for a protest aimed at ending state COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants and bars.
The group outside Wings Sports Bar & Grill met with state lawmakers and called on Governor Mike DeWine to loosen regulations, including distancing requirements for tables and the 10:00pm cut off for liquor sales.
“We’re barely scraping by each week, trying to look each week (to see if) we have enough to keep the lights on,” said Doug Finkle, owner of Julia’s Night Club in Miami Township. Finkle helped organize Thursday’s gathering, attended by some two dozen people.
“We’re the people that built these places, built these businesses, we’ve put our blood sweat and tears into them, and we want to see them survive,” Finkle said.
The latest numbers from the Ohio Restaurant Association show 56 percent of restaurant and bar owners polled to not expect to stay in business nine more months at their current capacity.
“We’re pressing the Governor that we need to move past this,” said state Representative Rick Perales, (R) Beavercreek, who met with owners. “I don’t want them to go out of business. This is a tough business to go into,” he said.
DeWine defended the state’s restrictions at his news conference Thursday, though, arguing they are necessary to prevent a surge in COVID-19 cases.
“I know this has been tough on business. I know it’s been tough on bars. I know it’s been tough on restaurants,” DeWine said. “If we’re going to have any chance of continuing to grow the economy, we’ve got to keep our foot on this devil down there,” referring to the virus.
But Aaron Crater, an Ohio bartender who has been traveling around the state meeting with owners, worries the time it takes to get past the pandemic will be too long a wait for businesses to return to more normal capacity.
“It’s definitely killing our industry,” Crater said, mentioning some bar owners he has spoken with fear they cannot last more than a few more weeks with the 10pm cut off of liquor sales in place.
“What I’ve seen from some bars, they’re digging into their own pockets, they’re cashing in their IRAs and 401(k)s just to keep their businesses open right now,” he said. “What’s happening is not working for our state.”
Cox Media Group