INDIANAPOLIS — New Year’s Eve is normally a big night for bars, but this year was a bit different.
Bars in Marion County had to close down by midnight, because of the county’s coronavirus-mandated closure.
“It’s been a long seven, eight months,” said Laura Roseberry, the general manager for Kilroy’s. “I wish they would have extended it at least to 12:30 to 1 o’clock.”
“With the ball drop being such a big deal, to give us 30 more minutes would have been something nice and easy to do,” said Jess Clark, the assistant general manager at Tin Roof.
Both told WISH-TV New Year’s Eve is usually their biggest night of the year behind St. Patrick’s Day, but this year they have nothing. By dinner time at Kilroy’s Roseberry said they hadn’t even come close to their 25% to 30% capacity.
For most workers in the bars, the smaller crowd means smaller tips, and it’s even harder to get those tips when people can just cross the county line where bars are still open.
“It’s pretty much a slap in the face sometimes,” Roseberry said. “I live in one of those counties so, to me, it’s pretty ridiculous leaving here and going to a bar that is completely 100% capacity less than two miles down the road.”
