Bars making preparations for reopening

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) - Soon Wichita Falls nightlife will make a comeback as bars are working to be ready to reopen on Friday with many making changes for social distancing.

“We pretty much were ready for Saint Patrick’s day when that started,” Iron Horse Pub general manager Ronny Berry said.

For over two months bars have been waiting for their chance to reopen.

Now they'll be able to do it with sanitizing stations, tables six feet apart and at 25 percent capacity.

“I think it’ll still be fun and light in here, people have already adapted to social distance, they know how it is when they go to the grocery store or go to Walmart or whatever, so I think that people already have become accustomed to it,” Broken Tap owner Stacy Hawkins said.

At Broken Tap Hawkins has already started preparing.

She plans to make the backroom for reservations on the weekends and keeping guests to an hour and a half limits when others are waiting for a table.

“That’s hard to accommodate when so many people, especially when people haven’t been here in so long, everybody wants back in,” she said.

At Iron Horse Pub a normal staple will be noticeably missing.

“We won’t have live music but the jukebox will be playing constantly I promise that there will be music here," Berry said.

They know that some people won’t like the changes that have to be made but are ready to enforce them for safety.

“We’re not going to be to the point where we tell you what you can and can’t do, we’re going to tell you what you’re allowed to do,” Berry said.

As the bar celebrates 20 years in Wichita Falls, Berry still has high hopes for the coming months for things to get closer to normal for the next 20.

“Hopefully within another two to three weeks we’ll be at 50 percent, hopefully by summer we’ll be able to do live music again,” Berry said.

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