With Wisconsin’s COVID-19 cases high, some bars and restaurants put themselves on lockdown – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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The Mothership co-owner Ricky Ramirez, shown pouring a cocktail early this year at the Bay View bar, has returned to serving carryout only during the surge of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin.(Photo: Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Ricky Ramirez started worrying before the November election, when Wisconsin's COVID-19 cases began their astronomical rise.

The co-owner of the Mothership bar, at2301 S. Logan Ave. in Bay View, said he worried that interacting with customers coming from points far and wide could sicken him and his employees. And COVID-19 began hitting closer to home, as well.

"With our friends getting sick and our friends getting positives just the worry you see in your employees' faces every day before you turn on the open sign," he said, made him consider the risks of serving drinks inthe bar.

It reached what Ramirez called a boiling point in a weekly meeting with beer and spirits vendors: the concern that he wouldn't be able to sell what he was buying, the speculation that the city might order a lockdown because of the ballooning cases.Im sorry, I just cant do this right now," he recalled saying.

So the Mothership made a pre-emptive move: It put itself on lockdown last week, shutting down indoor seatingand switching to carryout only, something that several other bars and at least one restaurant havedone recently. It's reminiscent of the lockdown ordered by Gov. Tony Evers in March to flatten the curve, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I think its a good time for somebody to do something," Ramirez said. Namely, take a step back and figure out, as an industry,what we can do to help each other stay alive this winter. Its going to get bad." He's turned to online ordering of the Mothership'stiki and classic cocktails, prepared in batches of four drinks or so, and mixed six-packs of beer.

Last week, Lucky Joe's in Wauwatosa closed its dining room and lounge to return to takeout for a while because of the rocketing number of new cases. Co-owner Jarod Packard said his wife is a respiratory therapist at Froedtert Hospital.

"Anything I can do to prevent her from getting any busier, is what Im trying to do," he said.

He hasn't put an end date on the dining room's closure, instead waiting to see where the COVID-19 numbers go.

"I think its just a lot safer if we all do our part and close down and stay as safe as possible," Packard said, adding, "Everybody else around me is who I dont want to affect."

Jarod Packard squeezes fresh lime juice for craft cocktails served at Lucky Joe's, as shown in 2017. Lucky Joe's recently reverted to carryout only through COVID-19.(Photo: C.T. Kruger/Now News Group)

The move to takeout-only comes at a cost, in a year when many restaurants and bars have taken big financial hits because of the pandemic. Lucky Joe's, at1427 Underwood Ave., also shut down briefly in October, during protestsover the decision by the Milwaukee County district attorneynot to charge a police officer in the shooting death ofBlack teenager Alvin Cole in Wauwatosa.

"Usually winter is our busier season," Packard said.

The night before Thanksgiving traditionally is huge for bars, when people travel home for Thanksgiving and gather with friends the night before for a drink. Along with get-togethers leading up toChristmas and celebrations on New Year's Eve, the last quarter of the year is the big moneymaker for the hospitality industry.

"Its a tough decision," Packard acknowledged. "Were definitelynot going to make any money through all this." But he said he's hopeful Lucky Joe's will be ableto hang on by taking phone orders for cocktails kits and menu items including dinners for two while trying to keep people safe.

John Revord, owner of Boone & Crockett bar at 818 S. Water St. in the Harbor District, has shifted to The General Store at the bar, with online ordering ofcocktail kits, beer, wine and cold-brew coffee.

"Its not going to make us any money;its not going to pay any bills," he said. But takeout will provide paychecks to a few employees he's able to keep on staff. "Thats better than nothing," he said.

He worries whatclosings the coming months will bring if Congressdoesn't passrelief bills, namely the Restaurants Act and Save Our Stages Act. Although government loans and grants in the early phase of the pandemic were effective, he said, "there's a need for Round 2."

Bars like his were able to make it through the first lockdown and tougher times of the pandemic thanks to a cushionfrom the 2019 holiday season, he said.

"Everyone had their holiday nest eggs. Unfortunately,nest eggs are a rarity these days," Revord said.

Boone might have been the first Milwaukee bar to revert to only takeoutbecause of rising COVID-19 cases, on Oct. 30. Snack Boys restaurant on the east side, of which Revord is a co-owner, began its temporary shutdown Nov. 10.

"The numbers in Wisconsin are so insane, there was no way we could justify staying open by any sort of metric," Revord said. As it was, he considers it lucky that Boone was already closed when he and a couple others there became ill with COVID-19, shortly after he tested negative twice within a week for the coronavirus.

But many bars have to stay open because the owners simply can't afford to close to patrons, an "unfortunate side effect of the lack of aid," he said. "For some folks that does mean life or death, and thats a really unfortunate position to be put in."

Revord said he was able to close Boone for the winter because of good weather in summer and a greatly expanded patio. The barroom itself was open for perhaps a month for service, in September and October; he estimated no more than a dozen people sat there in all that time. Everyone wanted to be outside, where the risk of catching the coronavirus was lower.

"Theres no question what a packed room full of drunk people does to a disease thats easily transmissible," Revord said, adding "the quicker we get past this, the quicker we can get back to the people we want to see."

Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla atcarol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.

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With Wisconsin's COVID-19 cases high, some bars and restaurants put themselves on lockdown - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel