Africa: ”Cape’s nightlife struggling through coronavirus pandemic”

When Gov. Mike Parson issued the “Stay Home Missouri” order in April, requiring Missourians to avoid leaving their homes and shutting down non-essential businesses because of COVID-19, Cape Girardeau’s nightlife suffered.

Now that the state has been reopened for more than seven months, Cape Girardeau’s downtown bar owners are attempting to make the best of a bad situation.

“The last few weeks, business has seemed to pick up,” said Jeff Mungle, co-owner of Coin-Op Cantina. “I know Thanksgiving business, that weekend’s usually pretty good. It was OK.

“It was about what I expected it to be with all of this going on, but it wasn’t anything like it’s been in the past. There’s several nights down here where around midnight, there’s maybe 20 cars parked up and down Main Street. Usually Main Street’s pretty full. It’s definitely affected all of the bar industry.”

Coin-Op has had to cut employee hours since it reopened in May, and 21 Taps initially had to let go two of its staff members.