As weeks under the pandemic stretched into months, and spring stretched into summer, a challenging new reality confronted the hospitality industry: Increasingly, businesses had decide on their own when and how to reopen. The onus was on them to figure out how to do it as safely as possible.
Uncertainty abounded. Pressure to revive the economy was building, despite the risk of localized outbreaks as people began to recirculate in public settings. A vaccine remained perhaps a year or more away (and its arrival remains uncertain). Public-health officials warned that we would still be battling the coronavirus at least into the autumn and winter, with surges possible as the weather cools later in the year.
The option to reopen was crucial to bars, restaurants, and brewery taprooms across the country, which had lost virtually all their draft sales and higher-margin taproom business. However, reopening demanded—and continues to demand—carefully considered measures of social distancing and sanitation.