Sara’s Diary, Day 85 without baseball: Wrigleyville begins to re-open

The last time there were crowds at Murphy’s Bleachers and the other bars, pubs, restaurants and taverns around Wrigleyville was in the middle of March. It has been 80 long days of stay-at-home orders in Chicago since the last big crowds in the neighborhood on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day.

The small groups I saw walking around on Wednesday were decidedly different than those large crowds on March 14. For starters, the only seats that are open in restaurants are the seats directly adjacent to open windows and the majority of guests are seated on the patio with tables at least six feet apart as you can see from these photos of Murphy’s Bleachers:

Bernie’s also opened their patio with social distancing protocols and advice in place, and frankly it looked like a pretty tame group enjoying a beverage in the sun at the corner of Clark and Waveland as well:

There are still a few businesses that appear to be working on their re-opening plan.