TAMPA, Fla. — For the first time in three months, you can have a seat at bars in 64 of Florida's counties.
"It feels like life is starting to become normal again. Before you could just order out and you couldn't be apart of the community," Shellie DeGrove said.
But many bartenders haven't made money in weeks and have been struggling to make ends meet.
"We're all in this together here so when COVID-19 shut us down, it cut and hurt a lot of different ways. It stopped that dynamic and we're a service industry. You know our staff, they lose their jobs, they don't have money to pay rent," Dave Scott said.
Scott is the owner at the Bad Monkey on 7th Avenue in Ybor City. The bar reopened at 12 a.m. on Friday, but not without the proper precautions in place.
"We've got the floor marked out with your separation standards. We're all responsible for our own heath as well. We do have temperature gauges. We're checking the temps of folks that come in," Scott said.
A few blocks down the Stone Soup Company has most of their staff back too, but safety is still a concern.
"Its been completely unprecedented. We've never ever in the last 10 years gone through anything like this. We've gone through hurricanes, you name it, but nothings been like this," owner Ilya Goldberg said.
On the first night back open, bars still expect small crowds as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Florida.
"It does worry me that the cases are rising, but I don't know if that's because we're out more in numbers or because there's more testing being done. I don't know I just hope that we can all be able to enjoy our lives," DeGrove said.
Meanwhile, other bars are still closed and boarded up. They're hoping to reopen soon.
"Until everybody's open on Ybor we're really not open. We won't feel open. We can't wait to see the other nightclubs and bars open. Even though it's another place to get a drink, we just want to see people thrive," Goldberg said.
Bars are able to open at 50-percent capacity with proper social distancing measures in place. If the spot has outdoor seating, that area may open at 100-percent capacity.
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