Editors Note: An op-ed from City Winery founder Michael Dorf that was originally run in Crain’s New York Business and reprinted here with permission.<\/p>\n

Behind Bars – By Michael Dorf<\/strong><\/p>\n

I understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and bars and restaurants.\u00a0 There is a difference between a sit-down experience and standing one.\u00a0 Like the difference between listening to a classical concert from a grass picnic pod and a raging mosh pit of a hardcore band.<\/p>\n

I have owned venues with bars and the subsequent liquor licenses for over 35 years across the country.\u00a0 Alcohol is served in stadiums, music venues, airports, and is a way of life, not to mention, employment for millions of Americans.\u00a0\u00a0 From the age of 21 to 30, most young people use the mix of alcohol, standing, and partying as their primary means of socialization.\u00a0 COVID-19 has changed that, and since March 15^{th<\/sup>\u00a0for most of Smart America, we have stopped serving.<\/p>\n}

But I am frustrated to continuously hear from elected officials that we need to \u201cshut down all bars if we are going to re-open schools and our economy\u201d.\u00a0 No, that is not what we need to do.\u00a0 Governor Cuomo has smartly seen a distinction in NYC, between sit-down restaurants that serve food and encourage social distancing and standing bars that seem to disregard public safety.\u00a0\u00a0 But I\u2019m supportive and behind bars that are cognizant of the challenges of keeping their staff and patrons safe and who are desperately trying to stay alive.\u00a0 There is a balance that can be achieved between professionally operated spaces and fools who don\u2019t serve right (pardon the pun, I didn\u2019t mean, we don\u2019t serve the right, which seem to follow Trump\u2019s disregard for mask wearing and all that symbolizes).\u00a0 The SLA seems to be able to enforce 21+, no smoking rules, etc.. which our society needs and the power of sanction, especially the lifeblood of holding an on-premise liquor license, certainly must be used to enforce the law.\u00a0 As Cuomo said, there should be \u201cno tolerance for illegal and reckless endangerment of public health\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, we need to quickly establish laws that stop super spreader events like the Chainsmokers event in the Hamptons that took advantage of the \u201cdrive-in\u201d concept of a concert.\u00a0\u00a0 But don\u2019t stop all musical events because some people disregard the rules.\u00a0 We need safe outdoor concerts today that people can enjoy safely.\u00a0 Musicians need the ecosystem of live music desperately which for some is their only source of revenue.\u00a0 We need to urgently find ways to create safe environments for limited capacity, safe, and professional places people can sit, eat, drink and listen to music. \u00a0The\u00a0blanket restriction of NO LIVE MUSIC has given rise to a growing, unsupervised, at-home backyard concert culture, which is counterproductive to our critical public health and economic goals.\u00a0Let us professional, responsible, holders of liquor licenses take on the challenging business of live music which we have built our careers doing. \u00a0\u00a0We need to be smart about the re-opening of our world, but it does need to re- open before our industry and all of live entertainment is dead.\u00a0 Put people who disregard the rules behind bars, but don\u2019t kill all bars!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors Note: An op-ed from City Winery founder Michael Dorf that was originally run in Crain’s New York Business and reprinted here with permission. Behind Bars – By Michael Dorf I understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and bars and restaurants.\u00a0 There is a difference between a sit-down experience and standing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stc_notifier_status":"sent","_stc_notifier_sent_time":"2020-07-31 20:45:32","_stc_notifier_request":false,"_stc_notifier_prevent":false,"_stc_subscriber_keywords":"","_stc_subscriber_search_areas":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,22,52],"tags":[9186,11054,11147],"class_list":["post-95888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-industry_news","category-venue-news","tag-citywinery","tag-covid-19","tag-michaeldorf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n