McMaster allows restaurants to serve beer and wine curbside during coronavirus crisis
While South Carolina restaurants remain prohibited from providing dine-in service as state health officials work to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Saturday that allows those establishments to also provide beer and wine along with drive-through and curbside pick-up orders.
McMaster’s order provides at least a little relief for an industry that has been hit hard by the spread of the novel coronavirus, especially independent restaurants.
Under the new rules establishments with beer and wine permits can now serve closed containers of alcohol for curbside pick-up orders as long as customers provide valid ID. The order is effective immediately and will last as long as South Carolina remains in a state of emergency.
McMaster originally ordered all restaurants to stop in-house dining starting Wednesday while allowing drive-through, takeout or curbside pick-up to continue.
“Things are terrible for everybody, but the restaurants are really going to be suffering,” Bobby Williams, CEO of the local Lizard’s Thicket restaurant chain, told The State after McMaster’s first announcement.
Already Home Team BBQ, a popular barbecue chain with locations in Columbia, Charleston and Colorado, has had to lay off 400 employees and close indefinitely in the face of the virus.
States across the country have ordered residents to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19 — only allowing essential businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores and liquor stores to remain open.
In a statement Saturday McMaster said that such a “shelter in place” order remains on the table in South Carolina. But McMaster said he thought that step was “much less likely” to be needed “as long as South Carolinians follow official instructions and take recommended precautions now.”
As of Saturday afternoon there have been more than 130 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in S.C. across 27 counties, with three deaths reported by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 5:09 PM.
