Florida bar owners have been cleared to reopen after months of coronavirus shutdowns.
The state announced that bars will be allowed to start selling alcohol again on Monday after more than two months of being forbidden from selling boozy drinks as part of an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Although bar owners must still limit indoor capacity to 50%, many celebrated the announcement.
“I would say that’s one of the best bits of news I’ve heard in a while,” Orlando Brewing President John Cheek told the Orlando Sentinel. “It would be good to get back to some sense of normalcy.”
Bar and brewery owners have been urging Halsey Beshears, the secretary of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, to overturn his alcohol sales ban since it was implemented in late June. Beshears instituted the ban after several bars violated the capacity limits as the state entered phase three of its reopening plan. Brewery owners even filed a lawsuit against the state over the policy.
Jacob Weil, an attorney representing the breweries, commended Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for allowing the return of alcohol sales in bars and breweries, but he said the decision may have come too late for many establishments.
“Unfortunately, due to the delayed action he took, and unchecked power he allowed Secretary Beshears to take in this unprecedented time, thousands of establishments will never reopen, and those that do will likely never be able to climb out of this hole the state has put them in,” Weil said in a text message.
