Sometimes you can’t seem buy a break. Eric Morris, who has fought back from two years of reversals in the eatery wars, was putting the finishing touches on his new Faces Bar/Bistro when the coronavirus intervened.

You win some, you lose some — then there’s that little known third category, “global pandemic.” LEO Weekly’s Danielle Grady explains:

Eric Morris has lived through many an opening day, both as a restaurant employee and as an owner.

Usually, he’s “running around, stressed out,” according to the Louisville chef and former owner of Gospel Bird and Hull & High Water in New Albany. But on April 1, the day when Morris’ third restaurant, Faces Bar/Bistro on Bardstown Road was supposed to open its doors, he instead stood in an empty building, mopping the floors by himself.

The coronavirus pandemic had shut down the dining rooms of all restaurants in Kentucky and pushed back Faces’ opening day indefinitely.

Morris was petrified.

In addition to Morris’s stalled Faces, Grady mentions NoraeBar and Barn 8 as among the Louisville area establishments on the verge of launching, now compelled by the pandemic to delay their openings.

Here at Food & Dining, we were monitoring a few others, including That’s My Dog (hot dogs; downtown Jeffersonville); Moya’s American Kitchen (Linn Station Road); and In Season (West Main Street). In addition, Israel’s Delicias de Mexico had planned to relocate in mid-March, but as yet remains at 1515 E. Market in New Albany.

This version of Faces has Eric Morris cooking, not Rod Stewart singing