Effective Monday, October 5, at 12:01 AM, the City of Long Beach is allowing bars, breweries, wineries, pubs, craft distilleries, and brewpubs that do not hold a City-issued restaurant permit to begin operating outdoors. These establishments must do so in accordance with the City’s health protocols for restaurants. To review the revised City Health Order detailing this change, click here and refer to highlighted sections on pages 1 and 8.
The City provided the following instructions for bars/breweries/etc. in the form of a press release yesterday afternoon.
- Businesses must obtain City permits to operate outdoors. Please visit DLBA’s website to review this procedure and download necessary forms. Click here and refer to the section labeled “Open Streets Initiative.”
- Indoor operations must remain closed to the public. This includes ordering or picking up food or beverages, which must instead be conducted outdoors.
- Alcohol must be purchased with a meal.
- Meals must be prepared by a provider regularly engaged in the business of preparing meals for sale to the public – in other words, licensed restaurants or food trucks.
Health and safety protocols must be adhered to in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The full list of requirements are detailed in the Dine-In Restaurant Protocols section of the City Health Order. Please note that the language has not yet been updated to reflect that bars may operate, but the requirements listed there for restaurants are the correct guidelines to follow. These include but are not limited to the following.
- Customers must wear cloth face coverings whenever they are not eating and/or drinking; this includes upon entry to the facility, when walking anywhere in the facility, and when using restrooms. This applies to all adults and to children over the age of 2.
- Customers may remove cloth face coverings while seated at a table and eating and/or drinking.
- Customers who refuse to wear a cloth face covering may be refused service and asked to leave.
- On-site outdoor seating at a table shall be limited to no more than 6 people in the same party.
- Outdoor seating must incorporate 6-feet physical distancing requirements between customers at different tables.
- Measures to ensure physical distancing are adhered to where customers or employees are in a queue. Place tape or other markings at 6-foot intervals in any area where members of the public may form a line or stand.
- Entertainment operations are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, disk jockey and live music and entertainment.
- Receptions, banquets, or other large gatherings are prohibited.
- All employees must be provided with and wear face coverings, and servers must also wear face shields.
Businesses with questions about the permitting process for outdoor operations may contact DLBA Placemaking Manager Stephanie Gonzalez at StephanieG@dlba.org. Other questions may be directed to Economic Development & Policy Manager Austin Metoyer at AustinM@dlba.org.