TOLEDO, Ohio — With the news of opening dates for restaurants and bars, places around northwest Ohio now have a deadline to figure out how to keep people safe while bringing their businesses back to life.
"For us to be able to hang on much longer it just wasn't going to be a reality, so this is very welcome news," Manhattan's owner Zach Lahey said.
"It's definitely going to be an adjustment for the way we're able to do business, but we're excited to jump in and at least have some sort of area where we can allow people to come to," Micah Risher, owner of Wesley's, said.
WTOL spoke to four different bar owners and their answers ranged from excitement to not being sure if they'd be able to turn a profit yet if they opened.
Zack Jacobs, owner of the Ottawa Tavern, shared his concerns. "I still don't know if it's going to be enough business to justify turning the lights on truthfully, and firing up the gas and hiring on a bunch of staff. Still definitely worth trying I suppose," Jacobs said.
With the news being so fresh, all of the bar owners have questions they need answers to before feeling comfortable opening up.
"I don't know if, if you've got a table of six and they have to be six feet apart, how's that going to work? That's not going to work," George Thompson, owner of Georgjz 419 said.
For now, Georgjz 419, Wesley's and Manhattan's are all preparing to have outdoor space open by May 15. They're used to being part of the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA), where people can freely carry alcoholic beverages within that area, and say that could be a big boost for business.
"It makes perfect sense that if we can figure out how to do it outside, then it should make the following week that much easier to bring the social distancing recommendations inside," Lahey explained.
One thing they are all realizing is that while they can reopen, the dining and drinking experience will look a lot different.
"It's like a new journey, it's a new business, it's nothing I've ever dealt with before," Thompson said.
The question for many of these businesses is when the outdoor refreshment area will be reinstated. That would allow them to have customers purchase alcohol in designated cups and walk around the Adams Street area.