COVID stupidity in MA

Idle Hands had to close their taproom yesterday to get their required food options in place. I think they are back open today

 

It’s absolutely ridiculous. I can sit inside at a fairly crowded restaurant with other people all eating, drinking and talking but I can’t have a beer outside in a beer garden unless I order a snack first? Nonsense. My wife and I wear masks and socially distance ourselves when we are out. We love sitting outside and having a beer, we do it often. I honestly think not offering food is so much safer, it’s less interaction with other people: server, cook, food runner. Why is the food rule even a thing?

 

I think it is aimed at bars that are admittedly high risk. My guess is that the people making the decisions don't frequent outdoor beer gardens, so they are ignorant on how they operate. Or it could simply be a simple calculus to keep more places closed. I agree with every thing you wrote BTW. I hope breweries can get some some lobbying efforts going to address this dumb rule.

 

It is 100% the restaurant lobby that is behind this.

 

Good for sales. In general, IMO Gov Baker has been more hit than miss on managing the crisis. Imagine if we lived in GA/FL/AZ? Now that’s some C19 stupidity.

 

Notch is open, they have food options available to comply with the order.

 

I think I figured out one of, if not the main reason for doing this.

To prevent bar hopping.

If you have to order food everywhere you go, you’ll go to less places. I know plenty of people that just jumped from place to place getting drinks and maybe one meal at one of the places.

I think they want to avoid multiple friends/households getting together and bar hopping all afternoon.

Not saying I agree with it, or that any of the posts above are wrong, but this would be at least one logical explanation.

 

Baker looks like a moron here. Allowing indoor dining but trying to shut down beer gardens? It is either stupidity or corruption by the Baker administration.

 

New Hampshire breweries have no stupid rules. I am fortunate enough to be between the two states.

 

add to this the reason he did this supposedly was the 7-day average positive rate was over 2.0%. Which was almost entirely due to a hospital group that hadn't reported positives in a month dropped 700 positives over 2 days. After those 7 days the average dropped again. And now that more results are still coming in from that week, even those dates have dropped below 2%.

 

Seems like this is a play by restaurants to bankrupt as many bars as possible and free up liquor licenses in and around Boston. I've heard the price on liquor licenses from places that have already closed have fallen quite a bit during all this.

 

And let's not forget how mad restaurants were at beer gardens and how relatively easy the city made it for them to open with a food truck. Trying to level the playing field.

 

Well within reason. You get larger crowds of people together in close proximity, I would say that's not low risk.

See the Ozarks.

 

It’s not aimed at harming breweries.

it’s trying to deter people from going to bars just to get smashed, and in greater numbers...It really is a completely different scene/experience than taprooms and breweries.

I’ve just gotten used to it. It’s been this way in NH for a bit now.

Wonder if Trillium will open Fenway again?

 

Also these hearings are happening this week...

https://www.boston.com/food/restaurants/2020/08/13/boston-licensing-board-four-emergency-hearings

 

Can any confirm or deny that CT has had this regulation in place from the beginning?
How is it going? Is it a pain? Are the breweries actually enforcing it?