Club Reports: What’s Open & What’s Not?

By in Club Reports

Well here we go again. Because of a huge spike in Coronavirus cases across Florida the last couple weeks, Governor DeSantis announced Friday morning that alcohol consumption at bars and clubs was suspended effective immediately. The Blog toured downtown Friday night to see what’s open and what’s closed.
Restaurants with bars could remain open serving alcohol. Thus, Avenue was open with a few patrons.
Celt Irish Pub, a restaurant with a bar, was open.
Sly Fox, heretofore known to me only as a bar, has a full finger food menu now and they could remain open. The wings, by-the-way, were great!
No DJ back in that corner anymore but they do still have a lot of 70’s beer cans on display! A few pizza joints were still open but pretty much all of downtown was shuttered including…..
The V-Group complex along Orange Avenue including Eve, Vyce, Side Bar and Room 22.
The Beacham-group complex including The Social, Aero Bar, 64 North, The Patio and The Beacham itself were all shuttered.
Independent Bar, closed. Interestingly, the Governor’s order did not say bars had to be closed, just that they couldn’t serve alcohol. No one took advantage of that distinction though since apparently you can’t stay in business selling just Coke and Sprite.
Wall Street, completely shut down.
There were some “surprise” closures last night. Last time we had a bar closure rule in effect, somehow Dapper Duck and Orlando Pour House remained open as restaurants but they weren’t trying that this time.
Elixir Bar is most definitely a restaurant but they stayed closed last night because allegedly some employees had previously tested positive.
Mai Thai had huge crowds the last round of bar closures since they’re a restaurant but they were not pushing their luck this time. It appeared they were open but no DJ so no crowd.
Lastly, The Basement did not open last night. Once inside, there is no interior wall that separates The Basement bar from Jimmy Hulas restaurant so they previously remained open under the theory that they were a joint restaurant. Apparently, they ain’t taking that position this time.