Last Call For Park Slope Bartenders Under Coronavirus Closure

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — It's closing time for Misty Smith and her fellow bartenders in Park Slope. They're going home and can't stay at the watering holes that help them pay the bills.

Smith, a barkeep at American Cheez, knew concerns over the new coronavirus could affect her job. Other bartenders did too, she said.

But news Sunday that the city would close all bars, clubs and restaurants that don't serve takeout food still caught them by surprise.

"The general consensus is just panic," Smith said. "Everyone is just kind of confused and scared because there’s a lack of information about what happened and what to expect."

Many bartenders couldn't be reached for comment as they fit in one last shift and customers guzzled one last bar drink before an effective citywide quarantine.

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Kristen Keim, a bartender at The Sackett and Barcade, could only talk by text as she scrambled to get groceries and supplies for "who knows how long." She wrote that she has watched her regulars in recent weeks go "stir crazy" as their jobs shifting to working from home.

Bartenders are now going through something like the seven stages of grief, she said. They're all scared about how they'll pay their rent, bills and for food, she said.

"We have no clear end date to this closure, and most of us only work in the service industry or work in the service industry and some form of the arts, which is mostly all shut down as well," Keim wrote.

American Cheez's bartenders held their last round of drinks Monday afternoon. They expected it would be a full night but earlier that day Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved the shutdown up to 8 p.m.

"I’m sure there were thousands of people across the city who were expecting one last shift," Smith said.

The likely layoffs will leave thousands of bartenders, servers and other hospitality workers citywide without a source of income. Some might be lucky enough to work at establishments that serve takeout food, but even so those eateries are likely to cut staff or scale back.

Smith understands why officials ordered the closures — COVID-19 is a "scary virus," she said. But it's still going to hurt people who depended on gratuities and live paycheck by paycheck, she said.

"Personally what I’m hoping is since the city decided these measures are necessary to protect the public I hope they will provide us some type of relief," she said.

Until then, Smith is asking that people who can donate to the United States Bartenders Guild Foundation's COVID-19 Relief Campaign. It's offering emergency grants to bartenders.

As of Monday, the USBG's website stated the campaign was experiencing "high demand" and asked applicants who experienced problems to reapply.

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