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At long last, Pennsylvania’s suburbs welcomed people to belly up to the bar

Sunday marked a much-awaited milestone in Pennsylvania’s efforts at returning to what used to be normal pre-COVID-19: Restaurants outside of Philadelphia were allowed to resume bar service.

Bartender Dora Duhadway (left) serves Paul and Beck Krug, who are visiting the area from California, at the Grog Grill in Bryn Mawr on Easter Sunday, the first time those in the Pennsylvania suburbs were able to drink at a bar and order a drink without food as part of an easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Bartender Dora Duhadway (left) serves Paul and Beck Krug, who are visiting the area from California, at the Grog Grill in Bryn Mawr on Easter Sunday, the first time those in the Pennsylvania suburbs were able to drink at a bar and order a drink without food as part of an easing of COVID-19 restrictions.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

Easter Sunday perhaps isn’t the busiest day for taprooms. But Sunday nonetheless marked a much-awaited milestone in Pennsylvania’s efforts at returning to what used to be normal before COVID-19 upended everything: Restaurants outside of Philadelphia were allowed to resume bar service and were permitted to serve alcoholic beverages without the purchase of food.

Also, curfews for alcoholic drinks at tables was lifted.

Requirements such as mask-wearing, and social distancing, including 6 feet between diners, still apply.

At Grog Grill in Bryn Mawr Sunday afternoon, more than halfway through the Phillies game that was on the TV, bartender Dora Duhadway had a “crowd” of 11 to serve.

A far cry from standing-room-only but progress, said Duhadway, who added that she wasn’t worried about being around bigger crowds as coronavirus restrictions ease.

“It’s been pretty dead today,” she said, but “everybody’s really happy.”