Arkansas bar owners headed to court over 11 p.m. curfew

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    FAYETTEVILLE, AR (KFSM) — Arkansas bar owners who filed a lawsuit against the state are headed to court Tuesday (Jan. 26) for their first hearing.

Over a dozen establishments in Northwest Arkansas say they can’t continue to make ends meet with the 11 p.m. curfew that’s been imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Piano Bar on Dickson Street is one of the 23 bars and restaurants behind the lawsuit. Owner Aaron Schaer says the 9-week-old public health directive that requires them to close by 11 p,m. instead of 2 a.m. is unsustainable and if it continues, his bar along with several others will have to close permanently.

“Certainly if the curfew is renewed and the injunction doesn’t work you will see a number of the bars shut their doors permanently,” Schauer said.

Nearly two dozen bar owners say being forced to close three hours early is hitting them at their busiest times and is detrimental to their revenue.

“That’s the bulk of our business and to remove those hours it makes us completely unable to conduct business,” said Bo Counts, owner of Pinpoint Bar.

“We’ve been down over 65% from last year and that’s not sustainable. We can’t just hang on and we’ve already tried to pivot and re-invent ourselves at the beginning of the pandemic and we just started to get customers used to all these new changes and now we take away the hours,” Counts said. “We’re just left scratching our heads and not knowing what else to do.”

Counts says the food and beverage industry already has some of the strictest safety precautions in terms of health expectations.

“So the ruling to take away the hours didn’t make much sense because we are already doing more than a department store, or an auto shop,” Counts said.

Schauer explains what could happen if the lawsuit were to fall in the bar owner’s favor.

“If we were given carte blanche, I think there’s a misconception, maybe there’s not,” Schauer said. “That it would be just a full on party. But we wouldn’t treat it that way. I think the people of Fayetteville are more compassionate than that and do not want to see this spread any more than it is right now.”

“We’ve been down over 65% from last year and that’s not sustainable. We can’t just hang on and we’ve already tried to pivot and re-invent ourselves at the beginning of the pandemic and we just started to get customers used to all these new changes and now we take away the hours,” Counts said. “We’re just left scratching our heads and not knowing what else to do.”

Counts says the food and beverage industry already has some of the strictest safety precautions in terms of health expectations.

“So the ruling to take away the hours didn’t make much sense because we are already doing more than a department store, or an auto shop,” Counts said.

Schauer explains what could happen if the lawsuit were to fall in the bar owner’s favor.

“If we were given carte blanche, I think there’s a misconception, maybe there’s not,” Schauer said. “That it would be just a full-on party. But we wouldn’t treat it that way. I think the people of Fayetteville are more compassionate than that and do not want to see this spread any more than it is right now.”

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