Reporting Trip: Creature Comforts
As part of my reporting on how COVID-19 has impacted downtown Athens, I visited Creature Comforts, to find out more about how they’ve handled the pandemic and how it has affected their business. I visited once as a patron, to experience their service and how they were making accommodations for the pandemic firsthand. I then visited again to take pictures of the venue during the day. Even for a rainy, weekday afternoon, there was still a chatter of laughter and warmth, shining beneath the string lights woven in the rafters; it’s a shelter from the storm. The stools I had previously sat at were pushed underneath the giant wooden pavilion, keeping everything and everyone dry. After talking with the host for a few minutes I confirmed the fact that they weren’t doing tours of the brewery or indoor seating at all. The inside of the venue looked almost unrecognizable, completely barren except for the servers getting drinks for the customers who either had to stay outside or within the partitioned barrier pathway to and from the bathrooms. The host said they hoped to have indoor seating soon, but given the current circumstance, they’re only seating outside. Instead of a normal bar setting where you order your drinks from the bartender, you are seated at a table where a waiter brings your drinks to you from the bar, more similar to a restaurant setting. Dogs and kids are still allowed in the pavilion, as always, and you can still buy beer to go in addition to other Creature Comforts products like tshirts, drinkware and other gifts.
