Red doors of Beav’s Bar open for business

THE red doors of Beav’s Bar have been shut for a long time, but Wednesday last week saw them open to the public for the first time in nine months.

As has been the case for so many businesses, this year has provided challenges like no other.

The Geelong bar is a popular spot for many, whether it’s popping in for a drink over the weekend or their karaoke night throughout the week.

Venue manager Siobhan Bradley said it was amazing to welcome people through the doors after so long.

With live music and drinks being poured, the familiar – albeit socially distanced – atmosphere was back last week and Ms Bradley was stoked.

“It was fantastic, everyone was just happy to be here, happy to see the doors open,” she said.

“At certain times throughout the night, I thought ‘I can’t believe this is happening’, but at other points it was like nine months hadn’t even happened, we just got straight back into it… the musos, the bar people, we were just like ‘gee, we’ve missed this’.

“To open the big red doors, to have people coming in and having fun again, it was just great.”

What proved difficult for Beav’s was the fact it does not serve food and relies on having a large numbers of people through the doors to make it work, meaning opening any sooner wasn’t feasible. Nonetheless, existing coronavirus restrictions saw the bar welcome more than 100 people through the doors on its reopening night, with Ms Bradley asking all patrons to abide by the necessary protocols.

“It’s same same, but different,” she said.

“We just have to do the right thing so it doesn’t happen again, we’ll get there.

“We just ask that everyone complies with the rules so we can keep providing those good nights.”

Ms Bradley said all the usual nights throughout the week would be returning.