Bar owner: Physical distancing in bar not possible

To Allen Campbelle, owner of the popular southern bar, Carrat Shed, Marabella, a bar is “not just a place to drink alcohol.

“It is a lawyer’s office, a doctor’s office, a psychiatrist’s office…”

Campbell made the statement as he said to Newsday that while he feels bars should be open, he does not agree with the measures outlined by recently-formed Bar Owners/Operators Association of TT (BOATT). Campbelle has been the owner/operator of Carrat Shed for 30 years. The association wants to have bars reopened in the fourth phase of the Government’s reopening plan. The association is supposed to take a proposal to CMO Roshan Parasram on Wednesday. Parasram said on Monday he had received submissions from the bar association, casinos and cinemas via the Chamber of Commerce on protocols and policies for reopening.

In a phone interview with Newsday on Tuesday, Campbelle said people come to bars to discuss problems, education, politics among others.

He said physical distancing was not possible in a bar.

“You cannot have people not standing in a bar. You cannot have people not sitting around the bar...on the stools around the bar,” he added.

He added that it could not be said that there would be no DJ music or any music in a bar. Campbelle said most bars have a “dancehall license” which permits them to have live music or DJ music. The Theatres and Dance Hall Act defines a dance hall as “any building, tent or other erection open to the public gratuitously or otherwise, where public dancing or singing takes place.”

These are some of the measures the recently formed association said it is looking to implement to have bars reopen in the fourth phase.

“You can’t have people drinking and one minute their mask is up and they have to take it down to drink. It is not practical,” he said.

“If you ask any customer, the rum tastes different in the bar than it does at home..the camaraderie that obtains in a bar,” he said.

He said TT should not adopt things simply because it worked in other countries because Trinidadians are unique.

He said the association could not speak on behalf of the 5,000 bar owners as the association's membership was only about 160 to 200.

“It is just not practical for us to operate the way an office would operate,” Campbelle said.

He said he wanted the Government to answer the question, “when they open the beaches are they going to have social distancing (physical distancing)?”