I'm interested in hearing about recent taproom experiences. I imagine we will hear about taprooms dropping the mask requirement and increasing capacity in the days and weeks to come. This is a spot to relay new developments and IRL experiences. Based on social media and brewery websites it doesn't appear that there have been any very recent changes at Venn, Wild Mind, or Unmapped. Fair State recently reopened indoor seating at their taproom and their trivia and comedy nights have moved indoors. The beer garden at Utepils looks to be in full swing. As far as I know all of the places I mentioned still require a mask when not seated at a table (at least indoors).
Goes without saying (but I'll say it anyways).... Barrel Theory and the other breweries in St Paul and Minneapolis still requiring masks.
I think those cities still have mandates so really anything in the STP/MPL cities will I'm pretty sure for now.
Was at Jack Pine in Alexandria, and Thousand Lakes in Parkers Prairie back on Sunday (both for the first time), and both were 100% normal. I'll be going back to both. It's too bad about the cities. I'd love to visit Modest, because we at the liquor store have a good relationship with them.
Yeah and Jackpine took the covid precautions as serious as anyone while they were in place. They had a great plan for following everything required by the state and still keeping open.
What's too bad? Modist is open, as are most other breweries. I was at Utepils just a few days ago, and there were quite a few people there.
New Bohemia in Golden Valley no longer requires masks. They are not a brewery, but have a lot of taps for craft beer.
Not in MN, but I was curious how things are going in other states, so I thought I'd check out this thread. FYI, in SW Michigan (Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, etc) I think I've only seen one brewery or beer bar say that they're not still requiring masks.
I owned and operated a restaurant for 25 years. We closed up shop for good at the end of October last year, in large part due to the situation. I'm out of the restaurant busniess, and work at a liquor store now - which I totally love doing. I wore a "shield". It was horrible, if I wore it too long, it gave me panic attacks. I do not wish that upon anyone, not even my worst enemy. All I know is that Friday, when I did an "Office Space" dance upon it, was one of the happiest days in my life.
You have a lot more trust in the permanence, or even reasonable stability, of Walz's pronouncements than history would seem to warrant.
