Jack Daddy

“I remember seeing the news a few months back about China. It's far away and you don't think much of it besides feeling sorry for the people who are sick and dying. As things developed I remember being on a trip in February and seeing the news that the virus has been detected in the USA. I had an instinct then that it was going to get bad. I theorized with my friends jokingly that sports will be shut down, the Lakers title run will be postponed and the Dodgers opening day will be pushed back months but they laughed it off. It didn't hit me that minimal gathering places like bars and restaurants would be apart of this lock down as well. In the week before March 16th, day 1 of the lock down of Non-essential businesses in LA (which also happened to be the day after my birthday), I remember going out to visit friends who work at bars. I had great reluctance to go knowing that things should be closed, and containment and limiting the potential spread should have happened already. I brought my little spray bottle of Barrel Proof Jack Daniel's, 132 proof well over the needed 120 proof to be an effective sanitizer. Still some friends thought I was over reacting. Reluctantly shaking peoples offered hands to only then immediately sanitize my hand afterwards. By March 13th and 14th the majority of people in Los Angeles started to see the writing on the wall. I stayed home those days, but on March 15th my birthday I broke my own rules and went to visit one of my best friends who was working a day shift at his bar Lowboy. It was my birthday and I wanted to be with my friend. Even if that meant risking exposure, he was exposed too and if we go down we're going down together. Luckily for both of us and the other friends I encountered that day, as of April 2nd, we are still healthy.

But the bar and restaurant world as well as many other businesses are facing tough times ahead. In Los Angeles, a place where it's already difficult to open a business as there is so much competition, high rents and a high cost of entry, most bars and restaurants get by with very minimal margins. When the lock down was first announced to be only two weeks it was hard to tell bar owners I was friends with that in all reality the minimum will be 2 months not 2 weeks. As for the hospitality workers another set of issues. The majority of hospitality workers live pay check to paycheck and more than 50 percent of their income goes to rent due to LA's high cost of living. The closure of businesses immediately puts people into dire situations. I wish that I could help everyone, but I can't. The hardest part about all of this is how little we can do to help. The bar community, including myself, is doing what it can to keep each other healthy and fed through various meal buys from take out restaurants, grocery care packages, relief checks provided by donating spirits producers and go fund me sites for bars. However patience will be the virtue we will have to focus on. Stay Clean, Stay Home. Take Care.