Confused? Idaho’s Stage 3 may seem ‘clear as mud,’ but two Boise bars will close again

If you’re trying to figure out what reverting to a modified Stage 3 means for your favorite watering hole, well, good luck.

Quite possibly, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. Especially if you’re in Ada County, which already had bar restrictions.

Or, in rarer instances, it’s closing time — again.

“Indoor gatherings are limited to 50 people or less,” according to the latest Idaho Rebounds plan, announced Monday by Gov. Brad Little. “Bars, restaurants, and nightclubs can operate with seating only.” Meanwhile, “nightclubs can only operate as a bar.”

In other words, sit down, Idaho. No standing while drinking is allowed.

But did you realize that the 50 or fewer limit isn’t necessarily applicable to bars, breweries, wineries, distilleries and nightclubs? That they have separate protocols involving square footage and number of tables or booths while maintaining social distancing?

To the untrained eye, the Stage 3 “verbiage is really, really confusing,” admits Ryan Andrews, operating partner at Club Karma, 800 W. Idaho St. in downtown Boise. “... It’s like they took the verbiage of Stage 2 and put in a little bit of Stage 3 and, I don’t know. I don’t know what they did this time. It’s about as clear as mud, to be honest with you.”

That said? “I recognize that our leaders are doing what they can to keep us open,” he said, “and for that we are grateful.”

Here’s what Andrews does know. Like most Idaho bars, Club Karma and its adjacent hangout, 8th Street Social Club, will remain open during the coronavirus pandemic — as long as they are not forced to close. Club Karma will celebrate Halloween this weekend, “however that particularly looks like for downtown Boise,” he added. The 500-capacity nightclub will limit the number of patrons to about 150 or 160, he said.

“As a whole,” Andrews said, “the roll-back to Stage 3 won’t have a specific impact on how we’re doing things. We will continue to enforce mask requirements, enforce social distancing, and monitor how people are congregating inside our establishments.”

At PreFunk Beer Bar in Nampa, beers will be served as usual, too, in a seated, socially distanced environment. “Going back to Stage 3 doesn’t appear to have an impact on how we are operating,” co-owner Heather Driscoll said.

On the flip side, at least two downtown Boise bars plan to close soon because of restrictions. In Old Boise, dance club StrangeLove, 100 S. 6th St., and its downstairs cousin, Dirty Little Roddys, will host a masked, sanitized Halloween party this weekend — before temporarily shuttering again.

“Just need to make money to carry us so we can survive,” owner Ted Challenger explained in a text message. “(Federal) government has let us down, state and city also.”

After going dark for months, StrangeLove recently had reopened, allowing small, familiar groups to dance while wearing masks, Challenger said. But restrictions — which also close down dance floors — effectively make staying open impossible, he added.

“No point in opening dance clubs designed for large groups without dancing,” he texted.

“The business model means I have to do so much volume, or it’s expensive to operate. It doesn’t allow me to operate at these levels and restrictions. We might get creative in this, but (it) still means more layoffs and loss of work and revenue. It’s been a mismanaged roller coaster at this point.”

Andrews is hopeful that statewide restrictions will have an overall positive effect, even if it remains to be seen how many businesses comply with the mandates — or whether they will be enforced.

“I’ve said this from the beginning: If we’re all in this together and working for a common goal, we will be successful together,” Andrews said. “It will be helpful to see all establishments and all counties working in cooperation with one another.

“Like many other businesses in our community, the bar and nightclub industry in Boise has taken a huge hit. We need people to follow the guidelines without opposition. We need people to support their local bars responsibly. Most of all, we need people to support each other. That’s the only way our industry is going to recover.”

Speaking of recovery? Andrews was hospitalized twice earlier this year while battling COVID-19 — once for five days, then a return trip for about a week, he said.

He’s feeling much better, he added.

Want to be supportive? Wear a mask if you go out. Don’t give bar employees grief about it, he added.

“It really just comes down to patrons being empathetic a little bit and saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to cooperate,’ “ Andrews said. “It’s not a matter of whether we want you to wear a mask or we don’t want you to wear a mask. Just wear it. Just do it. ”

This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 12:28 PM.