Restaurant owners, experts talk balancing safety, business concerns
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants have faced some of the biggest challenges compared to many other industries. From constantly changing regulations that affected their bottom line, to investing in expensive HVAC equipment only to have their dining rooms closed, restaurant owners have attempted to convince both themselves and others that they’re not the problem. After all, they’ve been held to strict health, safety and sanitation regulations to simply operate, even before the pandemic set in.
But as time has gone on and research on COVID-19 has grown, scientists have learned more about the virus and they say that the verdict is clear: Among public places, restaurants are one of the most concerning places of spread simply by the nature of what people do at a restaurant — eating and drinking, both of which require removal of a mask, not to mention talking to other people.
But there are still ways for restaurants and bars to operate while minimizing transmission, researchers say. Advocates emphasize the need for financial assistance and transparency on a policy level, should local and national leaders continue ordering restrictions.
Yet, questions remain about the science, the data and what restaurants should do in the face of all this uncertainty, so we talked to experts and restaurant owners about their findings, solutions and desires. Their answers here have been shortened for brevity.
Christina Anderson is the deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and became the chief of operations for the city’s COVID-19 response earlier this year. She and her team also work with a modeling consortium that uses public records to help inform policy.
Beth Redbird is an assistant professor of sociology at Northwestern University and was one of the authors of an article in the science journal Nature titled “Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening,” in which she and her fellow researchers confirmed the places where spread is most likely, aswell as ways to combat it.
Julio Cano is one of the partners of the Bien Trucha group, which owns four restaurants in the suburbs and opened an additional virtual kitchen during the pandemic.
Jodi Ageeis theowner of Jefferson Tap in the Fulton River District and has been an outspoken supporter of increased aid to restaurants.
Sam Toia is the president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), a nonprofit organization geared toward assisting and promoting the restaurant industry.
Q: Where are you concerned about potential spread in public places?
Anderson: Restaurants. Cases are spiking and we know that the risk factors include a bunch of people being together in a room with no masks in a close setting. These are known risk factors, and restaurants are the most common type of place where that happens. Having more breath and spit and droplets coming out of your mouth is associated with transmission.
Restaurants and bars are different environments. We know not wearing a mask, having a bunch of people in the same room, having different groups with connection points between them, speaking loudly and having unmasked conversations are all risk factors. Those all happen in restaurants and bars. You can’t eat with a mask on.
When we question people who have tested positive for COVID, the most common public location they say they visited in the previous two weeks is a restaurant, as opposed to a gym or nail salon.
Redbird: The most common places of spread are where people tend to be in smaller group and stay for longer periods of time, which is why gyms and religious spaces where there is singing or interacting with others are also on the list.
Q: How do we make these spaces safer?
Redbird: A decrease in restaurant maximum capacity to 20% can curb spread by 80%, which means restaurants can continue to operate. Reducing the ability to sit in the restaurant is important because indoor dining takes more time, whereas walking in and getting a carryout bag takes significantly less time. Alternatives like takeout and delivery are great ways for restaurants to keep selling their food while reducing the amount of time spent in a restaurant.
It’s not a question of “what’s the magic line,” but more a question of “how do we make the kinds of compromises that ensure safety while still letting businesses operate as businesses?” The key is limiting the number of people in a space and the amount of time they’re spending in those spaces. Things like ventilation and mask usage are also important factors.
One of the things we can prioritize is decreasing the amount of time people spend in these spaces— not close every restaurants forever, but change the way that restaurants operate.
Q: Howis CDPH set up to investigate COVID- 19 cases?
Anderson: CDPH is identifying potential patterns of contact that could have led to spread, evaluating howthey can help those places and brainstorming ways to avoid this kind of spread in the future. CDPH does not levy fines. It strictly identifies people who might have been exposed to COVID-19 and attempts to understand the nature of the spread in that situation. Data of these investigations is published at chicago. gov/coronavirus under the community outbreaks section.
Q: Whois fining business owners?
Anderson: The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. They are responding to complaints, looking at city guidelines and evaluating if the business is following guidelines from a regulatory perspective. The department is not testing anyone for COVID-19, nor is it contact tracing.
Q: How is CDPH analyzing the data that’s being collected?
Anderson: We’re sending data to the state manually every week and outbreak investigations are kept in an internal shared drive. CDPH has a ton of data analysts and epidemiologists spending nights and weekends analyzing this data and pulling out that information.
Q: Why distinguish between bars and restaurants?
Anderson: When people drink, their inhibitions are lowered and they think less about the rules— that’s why we enjoy drinking with friends. We’re harsher on bars because of that reason. That being said, where we’re at right now, we’re looking at hospital projections and death projections that are really alarming. We are not in a zone where we want to be. We don’t want to waste a ton of energy being totally nuanced while hospital beds are filling up.
Q: What are some challenges CD PH has faced?
Anderson: We don’t have eyes and ears on all of Chicago at all times, nor do we want to, so our data is limited by what people tell us. Some people are not forthcoming, and that really limits our ability to stop the spread. Also, as the testing landscape changes, you have some tests that aren’t being reported to the state health reporting system.
Q: What are some ways restaurants have mitigated spread?
In addition to following ever-changing state and city guidelines, many restaurants have invested tens of thousands of dollars into sanitation, protective equipment, air purification systems, plexiglass and outdoor structures, like domes and tents, several restaurateurs interviewed said. Most have heavily pivoted to takeout and delivery, but these growing costs have forced many to close and others to scrape by, leading to frustration and burnout.
Cano: We’re all in survival mode. Everybody is struggling.
Q: But really, are restaurants doing that poorly?
Toia: Yes. According to a recent survey by the Illinois Restaurant Association, nearly 70% of restaurant operators in Illinois say they will be out of business in the next six months if there’s no federal relief. IRA conservative ly estimates that regardless of federal relief at least one out of every five restaurants will close permanently because of the pandemic.
Q: Are there any compli
cations with following state guidelines?
Some restaurants have defied state orders so they can make enough money to stay open, including The Lucky Penny Dinerand Deli in Naperville and Brooster’s in Lombard. Although Cano said he passes no judgment on owners “doing what they need to do,” he is frustrated because it puts his business at a disadvantage because he has chosen to follow the rules, and is thus limited by what the state and cities have mandated.
Cano: We’ve gotten a lot of emails from customers, some criticizing our decision to follow the rules and others threatening to never return ifwe don’t.
It’s a tricky situation and we’ve been doing everything that we can. We built outdoor pods. That’s an investment, but that’s the only way to generate some income because we don’t knowwhat’s going to be the new order. Not everyone can do that.
Q: What are some things restaurant owners need in order to survive?
In a perfect world, restaurants would be closed and given a giant stack of money to make it through the end of the pandemic or until there is widespread access to vaccines, many owners said.
Cano: I wish cities would reward or incentivize businesses who are following safety orders instead of levying fines. Everyone should receive equitable aid, from small mom-and-pop businesses to larger restaurant groups, based on sales. Loans are great, but are unreliable. Many times it is first come, first served, and even then, sometimes you’ll be the first to apply only to find out there’s no money. We want more transparency from leadership on their decisionmaking process.
Agee: Even just more information and advice on how to operate a business successfully during a pandemic would be helpful to help us plan for the future instead of constant changes that force us to aggressively pivot repeatedly. Deferment of expenses only means paying more later.
Because we aren’t completely shut down, insurance premiums have been the same as if the restaurants were fully operational, which we’re definitely not. We can’t claim business interruption and we’re still spending thousands of dollars on liability coverage for guests that don’t exist and business hours that are gone. I wish they would start listening to us. This isn’t our first rodeo. If you tell us to follow (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, we’ll do it.
Q: What’s the Illinois Restaurant Association currently advocating for?
Toia: The $120 billion Restaurants Act, plus additional loans and tax credits. The IRA also is advocating for the reestablishment of indoor dining and for leaders to share plans on howto keep the restaurant industry alive.