Minnesota Bars Open at 50 Percent Capacity

DULUTH, Minn. – Customers are excited to be back in bars and restaurants in Minnesota. On Wednesday, they opened for dine-in service for the first time since mid-March.

“To me it’s always nice to have a pint of beer in a bar and it’s been so long,” said Ben Cullen, a customer at Dubh Linn Restaurant and Irish Brew Pub in Duluth. “I didn’t think I would miss the disruption of it so much, but it feels nice to be sat at a bar again.”

Dubh Linn had been open for curbside pick-up and delivery since the shutdown began.

Staff say they made enough sales to stay open, but it wasn’t close to the amount of business they usually do.

Now, they’re excited to welcome back their regular customers and work to keep everybody safe as the pandemic continues.

“We’ve got everything spaced out pretty nice and we’re all wearing masks and we’ve got a bunch of sanitary stations for people, so we’re just asking people to still social distance during these times too,” said Dubh Linn bartender Dave Roden.

Dubh Linn has opened a back alley entrance for customers to access the bar without walking through Superior Street construction.

The whole pub is open except for the comedy stage, which the owner tells us will hopefully open in the fall with more guidance from Gov. Walz.