he New South Wales state government has announced that bars and clubs with kitchens will be able to reopen on 15 May, as Covid-19 lockdowns ease. Restaurants and cafes will be permitted to reopen on the same date. But to say that “pubs are reopening” does not quite capture the truth of the situation. Bars and pubs will be subject to the same social distancing and headcount caps as other venues – with 4 square metres of space for each patron, up to a maximum of 10 patrons. Pubs and clubs will only be allowed to open “an eating area on the premises” according to the public health order issued 14 May, and can serve alcohol “only if any liquor sold is sold with or ancillary to food served”. The experience most typically associated with a pub – ordering a beer from the counter – will not be back on the menu. “The ability to conduct politics at the front bar of a pub are probably a way away yet,” John Green of the Australian Hotels Association told Guardian Australia. Green says it is impossible to know how many of the industry body’s more than 2,000 members across NSW will be able to trade again, but notes that in rural areas particularly, “many patrons don’t have a choice of where to eat, so having their pub reopen to provide meals is an important factor”. Katie Galvin of the Thirsty Crow in Wagga Wagga says they’ve made the decision to reopen on a bookings-only basis. The brewery and pub, which was previously open for takeaway, will be inviting their first customers back in from Monday 18 May. Galvin says they’ll offering “slots for an hour and a half”. Then they’ll turn over, thoroughly clean the venue, and open again for another group of up to 10 people. The Lady Hampshire, in the inner Sydney suburb of Camperdown, is taking a similar approach. Publican Chris Traill says that because the pub is already open six nights a week for takeaway “it’s not a stretch at all for us to have … 10 people for dinner”. From Friday 15 May, the pub will reopen for advanced bookings. “We’re getting a lot of interest come through – people are obviously wanting to have a pub feed.” Since the shutdown, Traill says he has lost 90% of his turnover, and while an extra 10 patrons in the bar won’t make a huge difference, “anything that can drive our turnover, so that we can continue to pay our staff is … a positive”. Some larger hospitality groups are taking a similar approach. Paul Waterson is the CEO of Australian Venue Co, which manages 150 venues nationwide, including 13 in Sydney and one in rural NSW. They have decided to open four of their largest venues on 15 May, including Cargo Bar and Bungalow 8 in Sydney’s King Street Wharf, which each have capacities of over 1,000 patrons. “It’ll be seated table service at each of the venues,” says Waterson, which he reflects will be “unusual, given the size of Cargo or Bungalow.” He says it “won’t be a typical King Street Wharf experience that goes late into the night in quite a crowded bar”. Although many of Australian Venue Co’s staff are now on jobkeeper payments, “we’re not going to make any money opening with 10, but I think it’s more about building confidence with our venues as a place to go and eat and socialise. If the restrictions say we can only have 10 people, we just have to deal with that.” Australian Venue Co has also developed an app that will allow patrons to order and pay from their phones, to limit staff contact if patrons would prefer. Multilevel Sydney CBD wine bar the Prince of York is taking a different approach to the 10-person limit. It is opening for single group bookings only, with a minimum spend of $100 per guest. “We’re turning Prince of York into your own private venue with dinner and a disco,” says the co-owner Paul Schulte. They’re even encouraging guests to bring in their own DJs. But, for many venues, the maths simply does not add up. All of the businesses Guardian Australia contacted that plan to reopen on or near 15 May already had takeaway offerings in place, but for pubs where “meals are the silver lining to our drinks”, like Sydney venue the Friend in Hand, “we’re reconfiguring our entire business,” says Emily Caska, who works for the hospitality group that owns the pub, and five other venues in Sydney’s inner west. The business has decided to delay opening for a few weeks, in order to prepare. “The first of June is our D-day deadline,” Caska says. Joy Ng of the Bearded Tit, a bar and performance space that caters to Sydney’s LGBTIQ community considered reopening. “I sat down with my bookkeeper and we looked at the numbers and we’ll just lose too much money.” She is waiting for restrictions to ease significantly, if not entirely. “If we want the best chance of reopening again … we can’t pay out the little money that we have left on losing trade.” It is not just smaller, independant venues that have made the decision to remain closed for the time being. Solotel Group and Merivale, two of Sydney’s largest players in the hospitality business, have both decided to concentrate on their new takeaway and home dining businesses until restrictions ease further. For the venues that do choose to reopen, Green says “this will be hospitality but not as you know”. However, he is optimistic that even limited reopenings will be a boon for the AHA’s members. “We see it as a small step to venues being allowed to reopen in … a much more normal fashion … We are committed to ensuring that patrons and licensees alike take this opportunity seriously, and see it as privilege.”