Another Impossible Choice
Bagby Beer Co.’s owners explain hospitality businesses’ dire need for immediate financial support from the government
Over the past year, as Executive Editor of San Diego Beer News, I have spoken extensively with a great many brewery owners who are struggling to contend with numerous facets of the COVID-19 pandemic. While resilient, innovative and outwardly positive, the lengthiness of this seemingly never-ending ordeal—with its plethora of twists and turns care of directions, regulations and stay-at-home mandates from state government—have ground them between the rock and hard place they have occupied for far too long. So long that, for many, their hopes of their businesses outliving the pandemic are slimming to a whisker.
The recently enacted stay-at-home order has greatly accelerated the erosion of these entrepreneurs’ chances and, even following a confusing court ruling indicating breweries might be able to operate without fear of license suspension from some (but not all) government agencies, it presents an impossible situation for brewery and brewpub owners.
Jeff and Dande Bagby (pictured above), the husband and wife who founded their eponymous, award-winning brewpub, Bagby Beer Co., on Oceanside’s main drag, recently got in touch to share the frustrations that come with being a business that abides by the state’s stay-at-home order, which they have since it was put in place. In doing so, they also noted how crucial it is that they and other hospitality interests like theirs receive financial support from the federal and state government so they and their employees can push through to the end of this dark chapter.
The following are their thoughts and concerns as well as a plea for much-needed assistance in lieu of further restrictions and debilitating mandates from the powers that be.
Photo Courtesy of Bagby Beer
Another Impossible Choice
As owners and operators of a local brewpub, we poignantly understand the extreme pressure being placed on San Diego County restaurants, brewpubs and breweries, among so many others in the hospitality industry. We face the same catastrophic consequences as others, but chose to abide by the latest health order because we felt it in the best interest of our community, including our guests, our staff and ourselves, to stay home as much as possible. We are gravely concerned about the rapid spread of the virus and the alarming impact that it is having on our already overburdened healthcare infrastructure, particularly the doctors and nurses fighting to save lives under impossible circumstances.
We acknowledge that once again being open for onsite dining will allow us to draw critical revenue to help support our struggling business and our hard-working employees, but the costs and consequences of doing so are agonizing for us, and require that we capitulate our beliefs and values. It is paramount for us to preserve our integrity as responsible owner-operators, to protect our longstanding positive reputation as folks who look out for one another and genuinely care about the community, even when the decision to do so is detrimental to the business itself and our own personal livelihoods.
We seek to preserve our ability to make and sell beer under our beer-manufacturing license, and make and sell food under our health permit by avoiding regulatory sanctions. Both of these licenses are essential for any future we may hope to have in this industry. While we are confident and practiced in our ability to create and operate a safe business, and to follow all recommended protocols appropriately, being open for onsite dining allows and encourages our community to minimize the severity of the crisis, to normalize defying guidance from health experts and political leaders, and otherwise decide as individuals what rules and laws are to be followed.
Photo Courtesy of Bagby Beer
As a civilized society there are laws, rules, guidance and social norms we follow to maintain a safe, healthy, respectable community. Deciding as individuals that we get to choose which of these we adhere to and which we don’t is risky, and it undermines our cultural values. We believe that until each individual takes personal responsibility for stopping the spread of the virus, it will continue to pervade our community, creating an even greater disaster for our healthcare workers and for citizens in our community who need care (both COVID and non-COVID patients), and will delay indefinitely any sort of return to “normal.”
Our kind and loyal guests cannot begin to compensate through their patronage for the financial losses we are incurring, try though they might. Many are mindful of the stay-at-home order and are complying. They should not be made to feel responsible for the survival of our business, when what is really needed is significant financial support from our government. It is unreasonable and unfair to leave this at their feet, as though with just enough support we could sail through this current situation.
We have leveraged our landlords for relief, and we have begged utility companies, vendors and others for extensions and special arrangements. We have bootstrapped everything we can possibly bootstrap and have minimized expenses to every extent possible. We have also asked our employees to sacrifice, to accept fewer hours and lower income. It is simply not enough.
It is critical that the State of California do its part. Funding is needed immediately to support businesses during this closure. Financial help will permit us to close, and stay closed, without facing the stark and threatening reality of losing everything because we are complying with the health order. The stay-at-home order, if followed, will no doubt protect the community, it will save lives and minimize suffering. Owners should not have to trade off the survival of their businesses with the health and safety of our communities. This is a cruel and impossible choice with no winners.
California legislators, among other leaders and persons of power, have so far been either naïvely unaware or shockingly uninterested in the crisis we are facing. It must stop. It is time to take care of our industry and the millions of hard-working, dedicated employees, owners and operators who are in this unimaginable situation through no fault of their own, who have done everything asked of them and are still left with the bill at the end of the day.
Photo Courtesy of Bagby Beer
