LORENA, TX — Bar owners feel great relief now that the Texas Governor has re-opened bars, but with some pretty serious restrictions. How to bar patrons feel?
A happy accident brought Virginia Rangel to her home away from home. "I stopped in here one day and I've been coming here ever since we were passing by and, and I said let's pull in there and have a beer, as the country bar just the way it looked and friendly," she recalled.
She found a little piece of Texas that doesn't know a stranger and welcomes friends, where you can still almost hear the cries of "Hi Norm!" at the TV bar "Cheers" from the Paramount series.
After months cooped up in the house Rangel's ready to get back to her home away from home at Papa Joes.
"Oh no no no I can't wait till it opens up. I'm ready. I've been ready." she said. And the owner says she's ready too.
However, masks and social distancing will be enforced, along with other state guidelines.
"How important is this place to the people who come here, they love this bar. It's their home. It's where everybody gets together everybody knows everybody," said Lisa Tambling, Papa Joe's Owner.
Just like a famous TV bar in Boston, this Texas landmark "This is the place where everybody really knows your name. Yes. Everybody knows your name," said Rangel.
To borrow from the "Cheers" theme, you want to go where people go, people are all the same. You want to go where everybody knows your name."
