Cuppage Plaza bar owner 'overwhelmed' as business reopens under strict Covid-19 rules after 8-month closure

• Three bars and pubs were allowed to reopen for two months from Dec 8
• Owner of Bell Bar in Cuppage Plaza has been writing for months to the authorities to ask for permission to reopen her bar 
• She was told at 3pm day before that she would be able to reopen, resulting in a bit of a rush to get things in order

SINGAPORE — For the past few months, seated in front of a screen, one woman has been writing to the authorities to ask for permission to reopen her bar.

She wrote in more than five times, submitting layouts of her space, telling them where her closed-circuit television (CCTV) is placed and what her safe management measures would be. 

Her persistence finally paid off.

Bell Bar at Cuppage Plaza, located at the fringes of the Orchard Road shopping belt, is one of three bars and pubs allowed to reopen for two months from Tuesday (Dec 8).

This comes under a small-scale pilot programme for the nightlife industry, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on the same day.

The other two are Bar Kiharu at Orchard Plaza and Skinny’s Lounge at Boat Quay, which have yet to resume operations when TODAY visited them on Tuesday evening. 

Bell Bar, which opened in November 2018, has been closed for about eight months since Singapore went into partial lockdown in April due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even in June when restrictions for business activities were eased slightly and the economy started to reopen in phases, nightspots and other entertainment venues here had to remain shut.

The 27-year-old owner of the Bell Bar, who gave her name only as Ms Mabel, finally got what she wanted.

But now, she has to brace herself for the enormous tasks ahead of her, in particular the need to adhere to strict Covid-19 safety regulations.

She said that she is “overwhelmed” to be back at work. The bar is not big, just 400 sqf of usable space.

Not being in operation for so long has made her “forget how to do everything”, she added.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling. I have the jitters. I’m so out of it. I’ve been itching to come back but it’s so different from what it was before.

“That sense of this new reality hasn’t really hit me yet.

“But finally, I can open. Ever since they announced Phase Two (of the reopening of the economy in late June), I’ve written to the authorities asking for an exemption because… look at how small this place is… I think it helped in being picked for the pilot.”

The governmental task force handling the pandemic said on Oct 20 that bars, pubs, nightclubs, discotheques and karaoke lounges will not be permitted to "reopen in their original form for some time, as the nature of their activities poses a high risk of Covid-19 transmission". 

On Nov 6, MTI and MHA then said that a “limited number” of nightlife establishments would be allowed to reopen with safety regulations in place under a pilot programme before announcing the details on Tuesday.

CONSTANT CHECKS

At 10.50pm, Bell Bar’s last customers — a Japanese couple — left the bar and Ms Mabel started disinfecting the place.

Half an hour later at about 11.20pm, safe distancing officers entered the bar for inspection. They had been there earlier at about 9.45pm. 

Every time customers leave, Ms Mabel has to disinfect the space, which includes a countertop and a sofa area.

The bar, which was open from 8pm to 3am Mondays to Saturdays before the pandemic and worked with a karaoke concept, will now be open from 6.30pm to 10.30pm.

At the moment, it can accept just 12 customers compared with 18 previously and no karaoke is allowed.

“I didn’t even have time to tell anyone that I had reopened but they still showed up. They are mostly my regular customers and friends,” Ms Mabel, who speaks fluent Japanese, said of her largely Japanese clientele. 

She was told at 3pm on Monday that she would be able to reopen, she said, resulting in a bit of a rush to get things in order. 

She spent the afternoon going to shops to print out signs in Japanese about the safe distancing measures, buying new towels, trying to look for more disinfectant and going to the bank. 

“I’ve been back once every month to clean up the place, and two months ago, I already placed these markers,” Ms Mabel said, pointing at the large red crosses on the bar area for safe distancing. 

Since July, she has started working in a service role at a restaurant to pay for the upkeep of her bar. 

“Given that the infection numbers have been low, if they didn’t (allow us to) open up around now, I would’ve been one of those who would go bankrupt. 

“It’s been hard to keep up (rental payments) with the landlord especially in the past month. No matter how many times we get the invoice, we simply can’t pay,” she said, without wanting to disclose how much she paid for rent.

So even though the bar has reopened, Ms Mabel is not looking to quit her job just yet and will be taking on an administrative role in the restaurant where she now works, so that she can have more time at her bar. 

Due to financial constraints, she has to run the business by herself for now, without the four full-time employees and two part-timers who used to work for her.

Though it might not be lucrative, Ms Mabel hopes to keep the bar open because her customers are her friends and she has created a community of her own. 

“This is the safe place where they can come to relax after work, to have a drink, sing a song, be in that relaxed mood when they go home. It’s their one constant.”

One of her customers is Mr Henry Ishida, 59, who was seen leaving the bar at around 10pm. He told TODAY that he is a friend of Ms Mabel and wanted to congratulate her on the reopening. 

One thing that Ms Mabel will have to get used to is not being “as chummy” with her customers like before in terms of limiting conversations with them.

“With these new measures in place, you can’t be as friendly as you used to — which is what this place is all about. We’re not supposed to be interacting with them beyond taking their orders. I’ve known these people for years… and today we have to stand far apart.

“Things could be a lot better but things could also be a lot worse.”

When TODAY visited Skinny’s Lounge at Boat Quay at 7.15pm, its signage was not turned on and the bar was closed to customers. However, someone who appeared to be a staff member was moving boxes around within the premises.

When asked, the man who declined to reveal who he was, said that the bar would be opening on Wednesday. 

Bar Kiharu at Orchard Plaza was closed.