HOUSTON – A new year follows another rollback after COVID-19 cases and hospitalization continue to rise.
A major setback for Stephanie Bryden, manager of Bohemian Hill Tavern in Rosenberg.
“We all have mortgages and car payments, kids and it’s just a really scary situation,” Bryden said.
Bryden said this is the third time her bar was ordered to shut down and this time her family’s savings are dwindling.
She said the order is unfair, and they’re staying open or they’ll go bankrupt. She proposes a reduction in capacity over a complete shutdown.
“If you want us to do 50% we’ll do 50%, but don’t shut us down because we have families, we have lives, we have things that we have to do in our lives as well and we just think that we deserve a chance,” said Bryden.
Over in Sugar Land, Linda Flowers the owner of Gridiron Bar and Grill is also feeling the pain.
“You know the bartenders this is their livelihood, the cooks this is their livelihood as well as the owners,” said Flowers.
Her restaurant has to reduce capacity to 50%, which means less revenue for her and potentially fewer hours for her staff.
“My employees are going to look elsewhere for a job and it’s going to be hard for me to find labor to replace them,” Flowers said.
She said her workers are great, and she doesn’t want to lose them. So she’s taking a pay cut to keep them on the payroll.
“I am not happy about that at all,” Flowers said.
However, she said in the long run, if she can stay afloat it will be worth it.