‘Uncharted territory.’ Sacramento’s bar scene crawls back to life — with changes

Pent-up partiers didn’t flood Sacramento streets on Friday, the first night bars without food service could reopen as health officials eased more restrictions on businesses in Sacramento County. The nightlife scene was more like tide pools, vibrant little ecosystems scattered across blocks of the city’s core.

Major bars around Lavender Heights (Faces, The Depot, The Mercentile Saloon, LowBrau) and downtown K Street (District 30, Dive Bar, Social Nightclub, Tiger) remained closed Friday night either by choice or mandate. Throughout downtown and midtown Sacramento, others that got their first crack at opening Friday like Torch Club, Bottle & Barlow, Flame Club and The Cabin opted to wait.

Bars that did open were given all they could handle. The two employees at Club 2 Me hustled to serve the broad age range of customers occupying every stool at the bar. With entertainment like billiards and shuffleboard temporarily unavailable to prevent the spread of coronavirus, there was little to do but drink and chat — not that people like Rick Pires minded.

The threat of a pandemic isn’t lost on Pires, he said. His grandfather died in the 1918 flu pandemic, he said, while awaiting the birth of Pires’ father. Yet as a 34-year East Sacramento resident and Club 2 Me regular for many of those, he felt an obligation to see familiar faces and throw down a few Bud Lights, he said.

“A lot of things are happening right now and you want to be careful, but when it’s part of your family — and your local bar is part of your family — you want to show that you care,” the 50-something Pires said. “I care about people. I don’t want to infect them, and I don’t want them to infect me.”

A few blocks west, Pine Cove Tavern had turned its arcade games toward the wall and reduced capacity to 50 percent. The bar area was still busy, including a group of 10 to 12 shotgunning hard seltzers at the center, but tables of two-to-seven people were well-spaced and a sign hung on the cramped men’s room door asking customers to limit occupancy to one person at a time.

Like Club 2 Me, Pine Cove’s doors were propped open. Employees wore masks, so did some customers. Hand sanitizer was less prevalent than in East Sacramento, but a gloved staff member made a point of wiping tables down with disinfectant even as customers sat there.

Singing a new tune

The biggest change, though, was Pine Cove’s elimination of nightly karaoke in accordance with California’s new 14-page bar reopening guidance. About 15 people called the establishment in midtown’s New Era Park asking if it would have karaoke, owner Ronica Anderson said.

Pine Cove will play by the state’s rules, Anderson said, but they could safely host sing-alongs through a combination of disposable wipes and microphone covers, and an empty dance floor near the singers. Still, she thought the first night back went smoothly and even closed up early after the last customers closed out around midnight.

“Last night went really well,” Anderson said Saturday. “The people that were coming in were aware of a lot of the guidelines already. It seemed like they already had a little bit of practice and were respectful when they came in of distancing themselves from others that weren’t in their groups.”

Sacramento County has had 1,716 confirmed cases and 63 deaths because of COVID-19 as of Saturday. The county had eight hospitalized patients in late May; it now has 36. Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter and Yuba counties saw a combined 296 new cases in the first seven days of June, and the highest one-week increase since mid-April, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis.

Some taking extra time

Russ Yeager decided the risk wasn’t worth the reward. The Slice Beer Co. co-owner and CEO said he wouldn’t reopen his six-month-old Lincoln brewery’s taproom after watching COVID-19 cases jump 33 percent in Placer County from May 27 to June 4, he said.

Slice’s sales have stayed flat during the pandemic thanks to a bustling to-go patio and brewer Zack Frasher’s following from his days at Moonraker, Yeager said. But patio can sales would have to stop if customers were allowed inside, he said, and the bar would only be able to seat fewer than 15 people. Then there’s the risk of possibly spreading the coronavirus to staff and customers, including Yeager’s immunocompromised wife.

“I don’t think I’m personally ready for it, and I don’t think some of our team is,” Yeager said. “Some people are ready to go out and don’t care that this is still happening, and other people are still very cautious, and I think we would lose out on the cautious people if we opened up.”

The new guidelines for California bars ask operators to separate customers from staff and other parties in a number of ways, including keeping music volume low, reducing occupancy and prioritizing outdoor seating. Nightclubs and other live music venues are not yet permitted to reopen.

Success in ‘uncharted territory’

An adequately spaced, vigorously sanitized outdoor beer garden would likely carry the lowest risk of infection. Among indoor bars, something like B-Side downtown might be the best bet.

B-Side’s bar stools have been removed, forcing people to sit in booths or distanced tables set up in the music-themed Richmond Grove joint’s parking lot. Customers line up six feet apart to order drinks from one kiosk at the bar’s far end, pushing the queue out the front door.

“We’re figuring things out as we go,“ B-Side co-owner Garrett Van Vleck said. “This is kind of uncharted territory for everyone.”

The busiest bars Friday night were those on with kitchens that allowed them to start serving drinks along with food a couple weeks ago. Mango’s Burger Bar, Coin-Op Game Room and Barwest all had lines stretching down their respective blocks, with varying amounts of space between groups.

One struggle to follow the rules

In the heart of midtown, The Zebra Club had approximately 60 to 70 people packed in its relatively small indoor lounge around 11:30 p.m. Friday, roughly on par with its usual weekend traffic since reopening on May 29. Its front door was closed, but an open back door led to an outside patio with another 20 or so customers.

A plastic shield protected the cocktail station from customers’ spit and sneezes, but the rest of the bar was uncovered. After a Sacramento Bee reporter asked to interview a manager, door staff were handed masks, temporarily stopped letting customers in and fruitlessly yelled for the 40 or 50 people standing in line to socially distance themselves.

The bar manager, who would only identify himself as Matt, came outside sweating profusely. Getting customers to follow safety regulations was like “herding cats,” he said.

“Some people really don’t want to listen. Sometimes people actually care, and sometimes they don’t want to adhere to the rules,” Matt said. “It’s just up to people if they’re going to take it seriously or not.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 3:31 PM.