Stress Factory’s Bridgeport re-opening postponed
BRIDGEPORT — The tables were spread 6 feet apart and double that distance from the stage. Food could be ordered using a “touch-less” menu downloaded to personal mobile devices. The staff was trained and equipped with masks. Patrons would enter through one door and exit through another.
As of Wednesday, Vinnie Brand said he had done everything necessary and then some to responsibly re-open his Stress Factory comedy club this weekend amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Comic Anthony Rodia was booked for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with about 400 tickets sold.
But Thursday afternoon, Mayor Joe Ganim’s office said Brand had delayed the re-opening of the popular downtown venue. City Hall did not offer an explanation or a new date. Brand declined comment.
The announcement came after the Connecticut Post confirmed with the state Department of Economic and Community Development that live, indoor entertainment — including comedians — remained prohibited under Connecticut’s health crisis re-opening plans.
“In the rules, it says specifically performers are only allowed outdoors,” Tommy Hyde, the DECD’s director of government affairs and special projects, said Thursday. “(The Stress Factory) can open as a restaurant if they want but if there’s performances, they have to be outdoors.”
It was not clear if Brand or city health officials with whom he has been consulting were aware of that ban and, if not, why not. On Thursday, Ganim’s office did not answer questions about the DECD.
Hyde said he constantly fields questions from businesses and would be contacting Bridgeport’s health department “to make sure we’re all on the same page (on) what’s allowed and not. It’s up to them to enforce it.”
In mid-March, Gov. Ned Lamont issued stay-athome orders to prevent the coronavirus’ spread, resulting in many entities temporarily shutting their doors and the general public staying home for weeks. The economy has since been cautiously reopened in phases, and Brand had considered his club — which serves food — part of the current Phase 2, launched June 17, allowing restaurants to provide indoor dining but with half the seating.
So while the Stress Factory can normally accommodate an audience of 340, Brand said he had reduced that to 150.
Hyde explained the rationale for not allowing indoor performances. He argued that the talent, whether singing, acting or telling jokes, may be speaking more loudly and receiving laughs and cheers from the audience, risking possible viral spread should anyone be infected.
“What we’ve learned about the virus is you’re much more likely to get it indoors than outdoors,” Hyde said. “When we wrote Phase 2 (guidelines) ... no one really felt comfortable with indoor performances.” He said that may be revisited as part of the Phase 3 re-opening, which Lamont recently postponed indefinitely because of the spike in virus cases in other states.
On Wednesday, Dan Roach, a Ganim aide, told The Post, “The club is good to go. It’s a very important business for downtown. So we’ve been trying to assist them as much as possible.” But after not receiving confirmation from the health department, The Post then reached out to the DECD Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve been informed that Stress Factory postponed his re-opening,” wrote Rowena White, Ganim’s communications director, in a statement Thursday. “Yesterday the health department was assessing the Stress Factory for re-opening under restaurant guidelines (for) proper sanitary (measures), disinfectant, spacing, capacity, etc.
“As the owner decided to postpone the opening, any further review or assessment of inspections were/are canceled,” White wrote.
White later clarified, “Yes, approval for restaurant opening happened. Outstanding restaurant issues were ... resolved and passed. Owner opted to postpone opening.”
Beyond this weekend’s shows by Rodia, Brand, according to the club website, had booked performances by other comics for late July, mid-and-late September, October and November.
Whether he and the city will work to find a place for Stress Factory to host open-air shows remained to be seen. Brand on Wednesday said he was considering investing in a “circus tent.”
“That may be the new way to go,” he said. “Knowing what I know today, I would not build an establishment that did not have the ability to become outdoor.”
Brand, who also has a club in New Jersey which for now is operating outdoors under that state’s pandemic rules, opened his Bridgeport location two years ago and has drawn many well-known comedians to the venue. On Wednesday, he praised Bridgeport and also Connecticut for their efforts to try and control COVID-19’s spread.
Told of Stress Factory’s issues, Joseph Brennan, president of the Connecticut
Business and Industry Association, said that generally he thought DECD had done its best to “build in some flexibility” into the re-opening regulations. He said that entire effort was a massive challenge given “no two businesses are exactly the same.”
“Everybody says reopening is much more difficult than shutting down,” Brennan said. “You’re doing all this stuff on the fly. It’s not like you have months and months and months to prepare and have public hearings. You’re doing it in real time.”
Brand on Wednesday had anticipated that comedy fans were ready to again venture out for live shows.
“What more bad news can we endure? People absolutely are ready. They absolutely need it,” Brand said, adding: “I want people when they come in to go, ‘You know what? I’m not safe everywhere (from the virus), but I’m safe here.’ ”