From January 3, 2022, we will no longer be able to consume standing at the bar counters. A decision by the executive to limit the spread of Covid-19, in particular the very contagious Omicron variant. Often forgotten, market bars are obviously affected by this constraint: “At home, we have a drink, coffee, we often nibble standing up. Market bars often do not have a hall. It’s not easy, ”admit Alain Pignol and Christophe Ferracin, owners of the Bar des Vedettes in Saint-Cyprien. “We are lucky to have a terrace that we can climb on the sidewalk. Otherwise, I’m not sure how to greet customers. During the first confinement, we had taken away sales (coffee, sandwiches, wines) to get by. Right now you have to be resourceful ”.

“The spirit of the bar is precisely to stand up and go from one person to another”

A terrace is obviously the solution. At the Carmelite market, most of the bars around the hall had one, “we’re lucky to have this authorization,” admits a manager. This allows us to continue our activity almost normally even if we lose a few customers all the same. You know the spirit of the bar is precisely to be standing, to exchange, to come and go with a drink in hand. It is not to be frozen at a table ”.
At the Victor-Hugo market, things are more complicated. Located inside, there is no place to stretch out. Yet the bosses have found a solution that should normally satisfy everyone: stools. “Customers will be seated at the counter to consume, explains Olivier, owner of the Electro Bar, emblematic since 1920. If we want to get by, we must comply with the regulations to the letter”.