NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Restaurant owners are reacting to the mandatory 10 p.m. closure for all businesses that serve alcohol.
Mayor John Cooper announced the closure this morning during his press conference. Any business that serves alcohol has to close by 10:00 p.m. Mayor Cooper said some restaurants were staying open late and acting as bars, even though bars are closed in the city.
For some businesses, such as Midnight Oil, a Nations pizza joint, the mandatory closure won't have much of an impact.
"We weren't doing a whole lot of business after Friday and Saturday anyways and we were closing at 10 Sunday through Thursday. We're pretty lucky," said owner Nate Bagby.
Bagby said the business will follow the mayor's mandate.
However, one business in downtown Nashville said the ruling will likely have an impact on the employees there.
"We've turned bartenders into servers and then tried to create work to keep everybody employed. So losing that hour, we've got some weekend employees too that it's definitely going to effect the hours that they were getting," said Johnny Baker of Ole Smoky Distillery. "Our big fear as a company is we don't want to have to put anybody back in a bad situation where they're unemployed again."
Baker also said the business will comply with any city mandates, but worries if any more regression happens, service employees who are about to lose their unemployment may be in trouble.
"Our employees came out of unemployment to get back to work. Those benefits are soon coming to an end. So, they have nothing to go back to," he said.
Bagby also said the frequent changes are putting a strain on the relationship between bar and restaurant owners in the city.
"I'm also hearing a lot of you're either in support of the large bars or you're against them. I think the average person is not looking at things like that. I think the average person just wants the problem to go away or to get better," he said.
12 South Taproom tells NewsChannel 5 the move will hurt their bottom line. They say, with so many other bars and restaurants closing earlier than usual, they were building up a strong customer base after 10 pm. "So we are getting those late night cocktail drinkers and lot of tourists wanting to come in for those later night cocktails.," said Krysta Steigler, the manager on shift at 12 South Taproom.
While Krysta hates to lose any opportunity for customers, if she had to choose any to drop, it would be the late night crowd.
"Honestly, after 10pm is when we have the most trouble," said Steigler, "People get a couple of cocktails in them, their inhibitions go down. It gets a little more challenging trying to get these guests to follow by the rules.
Unlike some of those unruly customers, she's happy to abide by the city's rules. "Ultimately, I think that it’s a good call on the Mayor’s part and we’re never going to get back to the way Nashville was unless we take these measures first," she said. "If we’ve got to shut down a little bit early, so be it."
