ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Many microbreweries are bars, and bars in Florida cannot be open because the state shut them down for the second time in late June when COVID-19 numbers started to spike.
Now some breweries are using a workaround in order to reopen. They are getting food or restaurant licenses, which enables them to operate as a restaurant.
The food isn’t always cooked at the brewery. Some breweries are using food trucks, hot dog stands or contracting with an off-site kitchen for food service.
Some brewery owners tell First Coast News that the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which made the decision to close bars the second time, is the same state agency now helping breweries get quick restaurant licenses.
Matt Hooker owns Old Coast Ales in St. Augustine.
"For the first shutdown (in March), there were all these government incentives, opportunities for loans, and the Paycheck Protection Program," Hooker said. "There’s none of that on this second shutdown, so you are on your own. And I think that’s why the state government has bent over backward in ways to help us get a workaround to that rule."
Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, tweeted over the weekend that he wants to meet with bars and breweries to discuss ideas on how to open, with a "safe, smart and step-by-step plan."