How Dive Bars Can Be Especially Vulnerable to COVID-19

Everything that makes a dive bar great, makes them especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Dark interiors and busy atmospheres might lend itself to a good time, but it makes it hard to social distance and keep the air clean. The big questions is… are patrons ready to go back? Nick Mancall-Bitel, reporter at Eater, joins us for more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Friday June. I'm oscar A Mirrors from the Daily
Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
We've shifted into a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic.
We're social distancing, washing her hands, wearing those face masks,
and we're reopening the country. I'll still give you updates
on any new information about the virus and vaccine development,

(00:20):
but will also be focusing on how we are reopening America.
Everything that makes a dive bar great makes them especially
vulnerable to COVID nineteen. Dark interiors and busy atmospheres might
lend itself to a good time, but it makes it
hard to social distance and keep the air clean. The
big question is our patrons ready to go back? Nick

(00:40):
Man called Batetel, reporter at Eater, joins us for more.
Thanks for joining us, Nick, thanks for having me as
the country starts to open up. One of my favorite
types of places to go to, the dive bar, is
particularly vulnerable to COVID nineteen. You know, we've done stories
about how how transmission happens. They happen in especially places

(01:04):
with poor ventilation, let's say, person of person contact for
extended periods of time, and those are some of the
things that you get at a dive bar, some of
the things that you make me even better really, you know,
you like these dark places that you know, when they're
filled to the gills, there's just action happening and drinks flowing,
lots of good people watching. These are some things that
really make the dive bars special. But it's also that

(01:27):
thing that makes them vulnerable to COVID nineteen, Nick tell
us a little bit about it. You spoke to a
few bar owners and their experience throughout all of this.
So I spoke to a number of bartenders bar owners
all over the country, and the situation really differs in
each city, but there were definitely some overlapping factors. So
people really love going to rowdy dive bars because they

(01:50):
are small and they're notoriously dirty, and even if that
stereotype isn't exactly true for most places, it still gives
them a reputation that maybe makes customers a little bit
wary about going in the COVID era, you know, they
tend to do a lot of business at the bar
as opposed to table, so it's kind of harder to
socially distance there. They deal in cash, which has become

(02:12):
really taboo. They do things that are normally really cute
and fun, like they serve communal snacks, and obviously that
can't happen now. So these businesses are really struggling, even
in comparison to other restaurants and bars around them, who
maybe can pivot to provide to go cocktails due to
loosen regulations in some cities, dive bars can't really do

(02:34):
that either because they don't serve mixed drinks or they're
not known for that, and unless a customer is going
to go out of their way to throw a few
dollars to a dive bar, they're probably not going to
order a beer to go. So there are not a
lot of options for these owners, even the ones who
are sort of trying to work with the regulations in
their cities, because customers just aren't coming for that. So

(02:56):
let's talk about some of those regulations. Because as things
started to open up, one of the rules in a
lot of places was you had to serve food if
you were going to also serve drinks. So right away
a lot of these drinks only bars were at a
disadvantage and they were making partnerships with restaurants or something
else so that they could do both again. It kind
of comes down to the city because regulations are differing

(03:17):
everywhere and they're changing all the time, which is making
it really hard for some of these owners. But yeah,
Susan Carnell, who owns The Living Room in l A,
partnered with a soul food restaurant next door or was
planning to as a few weeks ago to set up
in their parking lot and serve food and drinks, and
then just recently l A announced she no longer has
to do that, so now she's refiguring. And Mark Connell,

(03:40):
who owns Botanica in New York, was getting around a
rule that required to go drinks there to be accompanied
by food, so he was just throwing in a bag
of trips just to get around that arbitrary rule. So
it takes a lot of pivoting and a lot of
creativity from some of these owners to get around these
crazy rules. What about bartenders, I know a lot of

(04:02):
business owners. Bar owners are concerned for their staff obviously
as well. They want them to be safe, but they
also want them to make money. And if people aren't
really turning out, it's a difficult thing to really go
back to. Some owners have gotten loans, A lot of
them have gotten PPT loans, which have to go for
the most part two employees, even though that's shifting as well.

(04:24):
So some of them have been able to bring back
staff in some capacity. But that also relies on the
willingness of the bartenders to come back at all. And
in some cases that's not a problem. In New York,
for example, Mark said is bartenders at Britannica would be
happy to come back. You know, they are done being quarantine.
They want to work. But out in l A at
the living room, the situation is totally different. You know,

(04:46):
the staffers are really cautious. Beyond this, you spoke about
the business loans and all that costs are going up everywhere.
So some of the great things about dive bars are
some of the really cheap drink specials. And you talk
about a place in Philadelphia that had a shot in
a beer combo for four dollars. I think in Los Angeles,
where I'm from, one of the fun places I used

(05:07):
to go to back in the day, the Gold Room,
they would do a same thing, a shot of tequila
and a beer combo for four dollars, and these prices
aren't necessarily sustainable that much anymore, depending on what the
comeback is like. Yeah, a lot of these businesses were
already struggling to survive in major city. The dive bars
have been disappearing for years, and this is really just

(05:29):
exacerbating that. So Bob and Barbara is a great bar
in Philadelphia has been known forever for serving the special.
Elsewhere it is known as the Citywide Special, which is
a shot in a beer. It's usually a PBR and
a shot at Gymdam and that right, So that drink
has been creeping up already from three dollars to three
fifty to four dollars. And I talked to Jack Prince,

(05:49):
who's owned the bar for twenty five years, and he
doesn't know what he's going to price it if and
when the bar opens. He doesn't know how he's going
to be able to make, you know, his bottom line
work and still offer a hoordable drinks that people know
the bar for. I want to read the quote that
you put from Princes at the very endy article talking
about the situation for dive bars, and he said, you know,

(06:10):
if this is the end, Wow, that sucks, but hopefully
we will live on. And that's just got to be
the sentiment that a lot of bar owners, business owners
more broadly, obviously two restaurants and things like that, but
that's just got to be the sentiment that a lot
of people have with the way these shutdowns have impacted businesses.
Dive bars are pillars of their communities, you know, they're

(06:32):
places that from the foundation for a lot of people
to come together, and they are struggling. They were struggling.
They will continue to struggle, and they will continue to
work to survive, to keep providing the scene and the
drinks that people fill up work, but it's going to
be hard. And you speak about it throughout the article
how dive bars have had to update themselves, renovate to

(06:55):
attract more people, but they also want to cater to
the locals, the people in their community that really prop
up that business. And this is why I love, you know,
my own local dive bars. The same thing. You like
to be a regular somewhere, do you like to go
and socialize and know the people there, And as Prince said,
it would suck if that was to go away. This
is really typified by the living room right here in

(07:18):
Los Angeles, and that Susan, the bar owner. They're was
talking about how she does care to a couple of
different crowds. You know, during the daytime she gets her regulars,
and at night, you know, it's a more diverse, gentrified
crowd basically, and those daytime regulars are older folks because
of the community of their older black folks. There people
that go way back with her, who show up for her.

(07:38):
They're her friends, and they're worried there may be not
coming back. As much as they want to support, you know,
a friendly business, they're just not going to come out.
Nick Man called the tell reporter at Eater, thank you
very much for joining us. Thanks again, I'm Oscar Ramirez
and this is reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's

(08:01):
big news stories, you can check me out on the
Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Fridays. So follow us
on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast.