BATON ROUGE - Bar and night club owners say business was not booming like they expected, on the first weekend of the re-opening of bars after shutting down during the pandemic.

"It's been slow, it's been very slow," said Tonio Wilson who owns Club Marceo's in Baton Rouge.

Club Marceo's has been in business for 40 years and is usually packed when the New Orleans Saints are on TV, but this Sunday was different.

"People are hurting due to this crisis we are facing," Wilson said.

With all of the coronavirus restrictions that bars and clubs must follow, Wilson thought twice before re-opening.

"Was it going to be worthwhile even to reopen being that capacity is only going be to be at 25%," Wilson said

The bar owner also says, he's operating in fear, that there will be a spike in COVID-19 cases, forcing bars to shut down again.

"You are open doing business, then the next day you have to close," Wilson said.

Bars and night clubs were allowed to reopen on Wednesday in Baton Rouge by the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control when the COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to below 5% for two consecutive weeks.