A local employee at a downtown bar is detailing some of the difficulties he encountered in maintaining physical distance on George Street.

Bars and lounges are limited to 50 per cent of normal capacity to allow physical distancing.

Terry Ryan is involved with TJ’s, formerly known as Turkey Joe’s. He says when the clubs were allowed to open on Thursday, he came out to lend a hand and found the task challenging due to high demand.

He says he immediately realized he needed doormen to watch each of the doors going into the club’s two levels. The upper level was limited to 65 people, but customers would enter through the downstairs and then head up.

Ryan says that quickly resulted in the capacity limit being exceeded in the upper level. He says he had to get on a table and tell everyone to get out because they were over capacity.

Ryan told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly that at one point he even threw on some classical music to prevent people from dancing together.