Bar owners call for more clarity from Dallas County officials after Judge Jenkins declines to reopen bars

Texas bars are allowed to reopen Oct. 14 at 50% capacity with the approval of county officials per a new order from Gov. Greg Abbott, but Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday that he will not give Dallas bars the go-ahead to reopen.

Local bar owners say complicated regulations and a lack of clarity from county officials regarding the criteria used to determine when bars will be allowed to reopen is taking a toll on an industry already decimated by the pandemic.

“Just having a target, not even a timeline because I know [Jenkins] can’t always give a timeline, but at least giving a target of what the goal is here is something that Clay Jenkins has failed to do,” says Kyle Noonan, co-owner of The Rustic. “He doesn’t give a target. He doesn’t give a goal. He just says, ‘We’re closed indefinitely until I say when.’”

Jenkins cited Dallas’ current orange risk level, which is determined by Dallas County Health and Human Services, in the tweet he posted Wednesday afternoon announcing that he would not file to reopen bars. He did not indicate when bars would be able to reopen.

The Rustic, like many bars, has been able to operate for the past several months after securing a food and beverage permit and reclassifying itself as a restaurant. In order to classify as a restaurant, more than 51% of an establishment’s revenue must come from food sales.

Many other bars were able to reopen recently despite the mandated closure of bars due to new rules from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission that allow bars to count sales from prepackaged foods and food trucks as food revenue, enabling them to meet the 51% threshold for food and beverage permits.

Although The Rustic is able to keep its doors open by operating as a restaurant, Noonan says not knowing when they can return to their former business model is crippling.

“If we know what the road ahead looks like, we can as businesses get a plan in place to navigate through this. But we’ve been basically for the past six or seven months driving a car blindfolded, and that’s just a recipe for disaster,” he says. “Our industry wants to get back to work, but our industry understands the importance of protecting the community from any spread of the virus.”

Brandon Hays, co-owner of Dallas bars High Fives, The Whippersnapper and Tiny Victories, is frustrated with what he considers to be a lack of communication from officials.

“I don’t understand what the metrics are that they’re using to make these decisions. And there are real lives that are on the line, these are people’s jobs,” he says. “I’m spending more time trying to read and understand regulations than I am focusing on service and guests. That is a testament to the minutiae we have to go through right now to operate as a small business.”

Hays says that both state and local officials have made knee-jerk decisions regarding bar operations and have failed to open up the conversation to allow bar owners to be privy to their decision-making processes.

All of his bars were reclassified as restaurants and are currently open, but Hays says the parameters in which they must operate seriously impair revenues. Food sales requirements mean significant revenue loss on alcohol sales, and cutting off alcohol sales at 11 p.m. instead of 2 a.m. means losing the most profitable hours of sales.

Hays says such restrictions would be far more bearable if they came with some sort of timeframe or explanation.

“All we’re looking for is a conversation,” he says. “Since things got shut down in June, we’ve sat without any conversation regarding the metrics we need to get to have a potential date for reopening. So we just sit around not knowing.”

In counties that are allowing bars to reopen, bars that previously reclassified as restaurants will be able to refile with the TABC as bars and not have to adhere to a minimum food sales requirement, says TABC spokesman Chris Porter.

“They have the option to continue operating as a restaurant, but for those that operated as bars prior to the pandemic and want to go back to operating in that way, they have the option of doing that as well,” Porter says. “Sales-wise, they could operate as they did prior to the pandemic. Clearly there are requirements in place with regards to social distancing, capacity and the requirement that alcohol sales end at 11 p.m., but as far as sales ratios are concerned, once they make that change with TABC, they can sell 100% alcohol.”

Denton County and Collin County officials said they will OK bar reopenings. Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said in a tweet Wednesday that he is reviewing Abbott’s order and evaluating next steps before deciding if he will allow bars to resume operations.