Restaurants and retail businesses are able to open again in Northeast Florida with certain precautions in place, but not bars.
Pete’s Bar has been operating in Neptune Beach for 87 years now, and owner Tom Whittingslow tells our news partner Action News Jax that he doesn’t want the coronavirus pandemic to be the reason it has to close for good.
“My great grandfather opened this after immigrating from Denmark,” he says.
He says he feels he can open the bar back up in a safe way to let people enjoy themselves and get his employees back to work.
“The government doesn’t need to be picking winners and losers, putting people out of businesses and seeing how long they can stand it until they’re crushed,” Whittingslow says.
He says his sister even sent a letter to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.