Like many area restaurants and bars, Patte’s Sports Bar & Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, shown here during a past Super Bowl, will concentrate on food takeout during a state coronavirus ban on serving customers in-house.
                                 Times Leader file photo

Like many area restaurants and bars, Patte’s Sports Bar & Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, shown here during a past Super Bowl, will concentrate on food takeout during a state coronavirus ban on serving customers in-house.

Times Leader file photo

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Swoyersville pub owner Eric Murphy quickly summed up his financial worries about Monday’s state coronavirus order banning sit-down customers inside restaurants and bars.

“I’m terrified,” said Murphy, who owns Murphy’s Pub on Slocum Street with his wife, Jennifer.

The state prohibited eating and drinking inside restaurants and bars statewide for 14 days, effective midnight Monday. These businesses may continue to provide carry-out, delivered and drive-through food and beverage service — an option feasible for some but not others.

Murphy said he will shift his sole focus to selling food from his menu for pick-up — a service that currently makes up about 15% percent of his business. His establishment likely would have been filled with customers today for St. Patrick’s Day, he said.

“We’ll be open for takeout as long as we can get food,” he said. “We have a beautiful menu.”

In Edwardsville, Ollie’s Restaurant at the West Side Mall also is offering takeout orders off its entire menu, said manager Ron Zeek.

Takeout will be available from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day, with the option to order the food hot and ready to eat or cooked but refrigerated so it can be warmed up at home later, he said.

“We are hopeful this will keep money coming in so we can pay all the bills and those who are still working. We’ll be running on minimal staff,” Zeek said, adding that he expects some area residents did not have time to stock up on food.

Zeek first sought employee volunteers willing to take two weeks off and collect unemployment. The remaining workers will be scheduled as much as possible, with the option to file partial unemployment if their hours are cut, he said.

Judging manpower needs is a challenge because this situation is unlike any Zeek has encountered during his 36 years at the family-style eatery.

“Tomorrow will be trial and error. We’ll find out what happens, how we’re going to do,” Zeek said.

Chris Patte, of Patte’s Sports Bar & Restaurant on West Hollenback Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, said the business will sell takeout orders from its menu and food trays, tentatively from 4 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 8 p.m. on weekends.

The business would have been packed Tuesday for the holiday, he said.

“Hopefully people will still want food to go,” Patte said. “We’ll have more than enough ham and cabbage for everybody to celebrate.”

Many other area businesses are posting updates about plans for food takeout through social media and other advertising venues.

Must close

Jim Casterline, owner of Steagles on East Northampton Street in Wilkes-Barre, said he plans to close during the ban because the food portion of his business is increasing but not large enough to warrant remaining open.

“I am a corner bar. I don’t do much takeout,” Casterline said.

Aside from the financial loss, the closure of bars cuts off customers from a source of comfort and connection at a stressful time, he said.

Television at the business has shifted lately from sports channels to ones about finance and the news, he said. In the beginning, many customers laughed about coronavirus and thought it was “no big deal,” but now the mood at the bar is more dour, he said.

“The worse things get, the more people need to drink and talk to people,” he said.

Formerly Stan’s Cafe, the business was owned by his aunt and uncle for four decades. Casterline purchased it in 2010, which means it is in its 50th year of family operation.

Casterline said his only lifeline is reassurance from experts that the pandemic eventually will “come to an end.” His daughter also is out of work because her employer, a New York casino, shut down, he said.

“It’s going to impact everybody, and we’ll get through and do what we have to do,” he said.

Like Casterline, Max Blaskiewicz said he does not sell enough food at his business — Maxie’s Sports Bar on West Main Street in Plymouth — to make it worth remaining open during the state ban.

Blaskiewicz said customers praise him for the cleanliness of his bar, and he plans to use the downtime to tackle projects that are easier when nobody is around — stripping and waxing floors and pulling out deep fryers to scrub the vents.

“I hate to have to close, but I’ll do what I have to do,” Blaskiewicz said. “The bills are still going to roll in whether there’s a customer here or not.”

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.