‘It’s completely devastating’: Fort Worth-area bar owners feel strain of COVID closure
Sonia Fennel, a bar manager in Arlington, has lived in the same house in Fort Worth for the last 22 years. She has countless memories there — it’s the house her kids grew up in.
But when bars closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, her income was shattered and now, Fennel said, she has to put her house up for sale.
Fennel manages G Willickers Pub in Arlington, and the decision to leave her home has left her in tears. During the approximately five months that Texas bars have been shut down or operating at limited capacity, Fennel estimates G Willickers has left about $83,000 in income on the table while still having to pay bills.
“We just need our bars open,” she said. “It’s a really scary time.”
Gov. Greg Abbott shut down bars again on June 26, after they briefly had been allowed to reopen at limited capacity in May, in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus in Texas. Ever since, Fennel and other bar owners across the state say they’ve had to exhaust their finances to keep afloat long enough in hopes they won’t have to close down for good.
Abbott’s order came when coronavirus deaths, cases and hospitalizations all continued to rise. In recent weeks, growth in cases has slowed in the state, though health experts warn it could spike again around the start of school and the Labor Day holiday.
“At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Abbott said in a statement on June 26.
Since the order went into effect, about 10,000 inspections have been conducted and 80 liquor licenses suspended, said Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission spokesman Chris Porter, in an email. Each of those suspensions was the result of an inspection and investigation, using either open or undercover agents.
Porter said the agency continues to conduct 1,000 to 1,500 inspections per week and responds to all reports or complaints of suspected violations at a TABC-licensed business.
While some have reinvented themselves as restaurants, bars are still closed as most of Texas has reopened. Fennel feels as if the state hasn’t listened and continues to ignore bar owners’ and employees’ pleas while they struggle.
Fennel had her license suspended last month when she opened up alongside an estimated 800 bars across the state on July 25 for Freedom Fest, an event in protest of the shutdown order. She recently had a hearing for her suspension.
While Fennel struggles and will have to give up her house, she said, she finds hope in the fact that she owns her bar building and doesn’t pay rent, reassuring her that she won’t have to close for good. But many don’t have that reassurance.
Tara Worley, owner of Cooter Brown’s in Burleson, said she never thought one day she’d have to contemplate closing down her bar permanently. The economic struggle of being shut down for most of the year has her backed up on rent and she has maxed out her credit cards to keep her bar afloat.
Since the shutdown, Worley estimates she’s lost out on at least $65,000.
“It’s completely devastating,” Worley said. “Not only are we letting our own family down, but we’re letting our employees down.”
What’s kept Worley and her business going is her loyal patrons, who organized a fundraiser that raised a couple of thousand dollars.
But that still isn’t enough.
Worley said she’s about $13,000 behind on rent. Luckily, her landlord has been understanding, but going forward, Worley said she’ll have to pay at least 60% of the rent.
The loss of income has also caused Worley to not be able to pay her employees. “It breaks our heart to do that, but we just don’t have the money,” she said.
For the last 10 years, Worley has worked for her business and created a customer base, and a signature on a piece of paper changed all that, she said.
“It’s depressing,” Worley said. “Watching everything that we have invested and worked for literally fall down around us, it’s heartbreaking and gut wrenching.”
At the same time they’re feeling hopeless and distraught, Worley and other bar owners are angry because they feel the state has singled them out as the businesses that transmit COVID-19 the most.
Fennel said it isn’t fair, especially since people haven’t stopped drinking, they’re just drinking at restaurants.
An avenue that bar owners have been suggested by the TABC is to start selling food and making most of their sales from that, but Worley said it isn’t an option for her. Worley said it would cost at least $15,000 for her to install a kitchen that is up to standard.
“It’s not nearly as easy as it sounds,” she said.
Both Fennel and Worley have applied for loans that have not gone through. That has added another layer of disappointment and stress to them.
While there seems to be no end in sight for bar owners, Chris Polone, owner of the Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, has been protesting and helped organize the group Children of Liberty.
Polone organized Freedom Fest last month, and earlier this month around 100 bar owners gathered to protest near the TABC office.
Polone said he has spearheaded these movements because he knows bar owners are struggling, because he is as well. He and his business partners have had to pull everything out of their savings and liquidated vehicles, he said.
“We have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in our business,” Polone said. “It’s all nothing but blood, sweat and tears.”
Polone understands the first shutdown, but when Abbott closed bars only, that’s where he drew the line.
“It is heartbreaking,” he said. “For the first time in my entire life, I’m on unemployment. I’m on government assistance. I’ve given up my health insurance. My children don’t have health insurance right now.”
Recently, his son had his birthday, but Polone couldn’t provide him with the birthday he wanted because of the financial setbacks.
“As a father, it almost feels as if you failed,” he said.
