PROVIDENCE – After more than a year of reminding patrons to wear their masks when they aren’t seated, bar owners and managers suddenly are free to decide whether they want to continue doing that, or operate with fewer restrictions.
The choice is theirs, Gov. Daniel J. McKee announced last week, quickly following on guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said Americans who are vaccinated no longer need to wear masks indoors or outside in most situations.
In an executive order May 18, McKee updated the rules on wearing face masks in public to exempt people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But he also added a section that allows businesses and other organizations to keep the masks in place.
For many bar owners, this new freedom to make their own choice on masks has led to a mix of reactions.
At McBride’s Irish Pub in the Wayland Square neighborhood of Providence, manager Jennifer Monastesse on Tuesday was preparing to tape a sign to the door. It asks patrons to continue to wear their masks indoors.
The polite wording: “McBride’s Pub requests you please wear masks inside while not seated.”
But if a customer doesn’t want to wear one, they aren’t going to make them, she said.
Monastesse, who is almost 6 months pregnant, said she has not been vaccinated yet because she’s worried about getting the vaccine while pregnant. “Afterwards, I will get it,” she said. She will continue to wear her mask at work and she’s asked employees to do the same.
The sudden news from the CDC, quickly followed by the state, took her by surprise. People at McBride’s have been very good about wearing their masks throughout the pandemic, she said.
She’s still a little worried that the bar won’t be able to handle a full crush of people this weekend, as the state also has moved up by one week the date for allowing full capacity at all bars and restaurants. That starts May 21, but McBride’s is still short one bartender, she said.
Thanks to its open-air deck, the Irish pub has done all right through the pandemic. Loyal customers in the neighborhood also kept coming, keeping everyone afloat.
“We’ve actually been in a better position than most,” Monastesse said.
For nightclubs, the state’s announcement that they could reopen fully on May 21 also came as a nice surprise. Dance clubs have been closed throughout the pandemic, while bars have been told that they could continue to serve drinks as long as patrons are seated.
The move-up for the reopening, to May 21 from May 28, means that some will fully reopen. Others plan to wait.
Anthony Santurri, who co-owns the Colosseum nightclub in the Jewelry District of Providence, plans to reopen in mid- to late-June, once he can fully staff the dance club, which has a capacity of 690 people.
He had kept another bar in the building, Freeplay Bar and Arcade, open through the pandemic under rules approved by the state. The experience has been exhausting, he said. On masks, patrons who were told to keep wearing them inside sometimes because angry or violent.
This time, he’s going to allow customers to come in without masks, as the state has allowed.
For the reopening of the nightclub upstairs, he said: “We are going to have a much more relaxed hand. We do not want to add any more anxiety or stress to my community who have suffered greatly. At this point it can no longer be the sole responsibility for any business owner or their staff. Over the time I was open in my arcade, my staff had been harassed, tables tipped over, I’m not putting them through that.”
Chris Bissanti, who is the general manager and owner of the nightclub EGO, said he too is going to take his time in reopening. Right now, the plan is May 28. The dance club, like the Colosseum, has been closed since March 2020.
The reopening, Bissanti said, will happen with masks being optional. If someone wants to wear one, fine. But he will not require them inside.
“I’m going to just follow by what they’re saying. If they’re saying masks aren’t required, then I don’t feel like I’m going to be asking people to wear masks.”
Some businesses may choose to operate differently, and that’s fine, he said. “But you tell people you don’ have to be wearing a mask while they’re drinking, at a bar, most people have a drink in their hands. That’s kind of a grey area.”
Many bars and clubs are interpreting the full reopening Friday as meaning that people can now get drinks at the bars, but the industry’s association is still trying to get that clarified from the state.
The guidance, so far, has been around mask wearing. McKee had said last week he would have more information on Thursday at his press briefing.
Dale Venturini, the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, said there is still a lot of confusion about the specific rules come May 21.
So far, she’s hearing that few restaurants or bars are inclined to check for vaccination status at the door.
“How do I prove they’re vaccinated?” she said she’s heard from many owners, about customers coming in without masks.
So far, she said most seem to be saying that they’ll have their staff put on masks if they see customers inside are doing the same.
“It’s now about personal responsibility,” Venturini said. “We’re back to where we were 14 months ago.”
But many in the industry are starting to exhale, and understand that the pandemic is easing.
“I felt like I heard a collective sigh of relief in the state the other day, when we [heard we] were going to reopen on the 21st,” Venturini said. Many restaurant and bar owners need that week, before Memorial Day weekend, to test-run their procedures and the new layouts, sans plexiglass, with full occupancies.
“People want to have some trial runs right now,” Venturini said. “Our industry needs to plan. Now they’ve got a week to figure out the proverbial bugs.”
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
