SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - Bar seating in Delaware beach towns is first come, first serve again. On Thursday Governor John Carney announced that the restrictions imposed when bar seating was allowed to resume ahead of Labor Day Weekend would be rolled back.
The Delaware Division of Public Health says areas such as dance floors and pool tables are allowed as long as face covering and social distancing requirements are maintained.
Governor Carney's office says the restrictions specific to Delaware Beach bars are no longer necessary as crowds have died down in the off season. Both the state and businesses still plan to keep customers safe and socially distant.
A reservation and a food order is no longer required to sit at one of three bars at the Wheelhouse.
"We'll take what we can get," says Wheelhouse Manager and Events Coordinator Shondelle Graulich. "We still have to wear masks and social distance, but I feel like this will bring back a lot more business to the bar without those little things in place."
Capacity limits and social distancing requirements will stay the same for now. With them in place, bartender Manuel Tejeda says Dos Locos saw positive results when it reopened its bar in September.
"We beat record numbers in September, which is 20% off." Tejeda says. "October was great and then November is just a slow month. It slowed down, but we hope it's going to be a better crowd, better with customers coming back."
Tejeda hopes customers who just want to drink and socialize, without having to order food will return.
Some restaurants like the Starboard say lifting these restrictions doesn't change much as they had already adapted to them. Steve "Monty" Montgomery says they'll keep offering table service at their bars.
"We never did go with the new restrictions and having to make reservations and things like that," Montgomery says. "We just kept to what we have learned to make work all summer and now it's working really well, so we're going to go with it until we get to that magic word, vaccine."
Montgomery says beach bars and restaurants have been asking the governor's office to give them the same rights as bars in other parts of the state for months.
"We certainly understood in the summer time," Montgomery says. "We didn't understand in the fall."
