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At The Alembic in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, to dine or drink indoors, you must first show full proof of vaccination.
The policy was instituted when the bar reopened on June 15 to protect staff members and customers.
But not everyone accepted the policy well, said Kathryn Kulczyk, co-owner of The Alembic. She said staff at her front door were reprimanded “at least twice a day” for being asked to show vaccination cards. The restaurant and bar do not accept negative COVID-19 tests for entry inside because “there is the possibility of having a false negative there,” Kulczyk said.
“I’m still pretty lax about this. I’ll take a photo or confirmation email showing you’ve been given two doses,” Kulczyk told SFGATE.
To complicate matters, the bar has an outdoor patio, where unvaccinated people are allowed to sit. But it’s the concept of proving vaccine status that seems to annoy people.
Kulczyk believes some of the offenders are likely visiting domestic tourists from states that haven’t pushed vaccinations as hard as California.
“We are in a very touristy area,” she said. “A large part of our income comes from tourists.”
On Yelp, the bar has received several one-star reviews, some of which were recently shared by co-owner Christin Evans on Twitter, as well as reviews of other bars with similar policies. The reviews have since been removed after the company reported them.
“Apparently now the owners are from Nazi Germany,” wrote one person. “They require proof of vaccination, it is a violation of the Nuremberg Code.” Requiring proof of vaccination is not, in fact, a violation of the Nuremberg Code, a set of research ethics principles instituted at the end of World War II.
Another person wrote that the bar “recently set up medical apartheid”.
“Denial of your medical status to access a cocktail bar should not be accepted,” they added.
Kulczyk has taken the reviews from Yelp into account. She said it is a space for “very passive aggressive people” and a “business destroyer”.
“I’m much happier to solve a problem in person,” she said. “There is nothing I can do with a Yelp review.”
Kulczyk said she was frustrated on many levels. On the one hand, The Alembic is a small company with only eight people working at the moment “and my staff are like my family,” she said.
“For someone to find it offensive to want to take care of my staff is very frustrating,” she said.
Kulczyk added that staff members are immunocompromised, as are many bar patrons, and that she takes their health and well-being very seriously.
“People take [the vaccination requirement] like I was going to give them a ticket, ”she said. “There are 10 other bars in the neighborhood that don’t do what I do, but they take it so personally.
On Monday, the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance, which includes more than 500 San Francisco bar owners, announced a new policy requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative 72-hour COVID test for entry to their establishments. Not all bars in the group necessarily participate.
The policy went into effect Thursday.
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