Shortly after Gov. Andy Beshear ordered restaurant dining rooms and bars to close Monday afternoon, Kate Russell logged onto Hopkinsville Brewing Co.’s Facebook page and posted a quick message.
“We’re opening at noon today. Come get your Crowlers before we close at 5 p.m.,” she wrote.
Russell, who co-owns the brewery with Joey Medeiros, doesn’t know when she’ll be able to do business again. The governor’s order, in response to the coronavirus, is indefinite.
“I personally think Gov. Beshear made a very difficult decision and I don’t fault him for that,” she said. “I do think it is for the greater good.”
While making plans to sell crowlers (large beer cans) this afternoon, Russell also needed to reassure her two children.
“I sat down with them this morning for a family meeting … and I said, ‘We’re going to get through it.’”
Russell’s employees have been laid off. She doesn’t know when they will be able to return.
The timing is especially tough for Russell and Medeiros, They recently opened an expansion of the brewery on Fifth Street. They invested approximately $250,000 in the new space and equipment.
Across town, business owners are making difficult decisions that affect them and their employees. And it’s happening quickly.
Tom James was having breakfast at Holiday Burgers’ counter when news broke about the governor’s order to close bars and restrict service at restaurants. Customers were eating eggs and pancakes as they read the news on their cellphones.
James normally goes to Starbucks but drove up Monday morning and discovered it was only open to drive-thru service. Many national chains — including Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell — were ahead of the governor’s orders and shut down their public spaces over the weekend.
“It was disappointing because there was no warning,” said James, a Marine veteran and civil service retiree. He likes Starbucks because he can use the free internet service. He expects he’ll start going to the drive-thru and then stay in his vehicle in the parking lot to read on his computer.
James believes closing restaurants will be hard on seniors. Many rely on plate lunches and inexpensive diner food for many of their meals. And they socialize in restaurants.
“This is going to cause a lot of stress,” James said. “I don’t think many people, even in their 90s, have ever experienced anything like this.”
An employee said Holiday Burgers’ owners were planning to offer carry-out serving beginning Tuesday.
At The Mixer, a new downtown restaurant, owners Heather and Graham Dawson immediately started on plans for a carry-out menu. But most of their 26 employees will be temporarily out of work.
“I knew this was coming,” Heather Dawson said. “But if it’s going to save people’s lives, let it be done.”
The restaurant will announce its carry-out menu and hours soon on Facebook, she said.
Dawson said she’s grateful an emergency plan is in place for workers to receive unemployment benefits quickly. Waiting periods are being waived for workers affected by the governor’s order to close bars and restrict restaurant service.
Even with carry-out business and a reduction in payroll expenses, Dawson is worried.
“It’s going to be tight for us. We still have to pay off our loans and we have rent,” she said.
Still, Dawson said she supports the governor’s decision.
“Nobody wants to lose their business, but more importantly we don’t wants lives to be lost,” she said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
