READY TO SERVE MORE
Pennsylvania restaurants, bars optimistic as 75% capacity allowed today
In the 32 years since Chris Dawso and his uncle John took over the Jack Rose Bar on the corner of South 12th and East Carson streets, the bathed-in-neon-lights temple to stiff shots and cold beer had operated every legally allowable minute, 365 days a year.
That Imp-’n-Iron-man streak came to an abrupt end March 15 of last year, when, after last call, Mr. Dawso posted a sign that the South Side bar would be closing indefinitely due to the looming coronavirus crisis. But he vowed, “We will be back! We love you Pittsburgh!”
“We don’t ever close,” Mr. Dawso said last week. “That was a very, very sad night for me when I had to make those signs and hang them up at 3 in the morning.”
Jack’s reopened for four days in June before a spike in coronavirus cases prompted another shutdown, and Mr. Dawso has chosen to remain so since. But with the rollback today of many of the state’s COVID-19-related restrictions, and his staff members either already vaccinated or scheduled to be, Mr. Dawso will serve customers again on Easter Sunday.
“We’re very excited to have our family back here,” he said.
Beginning today bars and restaurants in the Commonwealth can resume bar service; no longer require purchase of food for alcohol service; and increase indoor dining capacity to 75% occupancy while maintaining social distance of 6 feet between diners. Closing times will revert to 2 a.m.
In addition, gyms, casinos, theaters and malls can increase to 75% occupancy and event venues can have 25% of maximum occupancy for indoor events and 50% of maximum occupancy for outdoor events, regardless of venue size.
In Oakland, chef Jessica Lewis’ team on Sunday will serve an Easter dinner featuring ham from local Footprints Farm at Spirits & Tales, on the top floor of the Oaklander Hotel.
“We have a good amount of reservations already for brunch. We have to cap it to make sure it’s manageable for a holiday,” she said. “We’ve seen an uptick in hotel bookings and we’re getting busier.”
Last year, they served Easter dinner for out-of work service industry workers and Ms. Lewis spent nearly four months at the start of the pandemic living at the hotel as part of a skeleton crew that ran the place. She cooked for the few clients they had and did housekeeping, as well as prepared and delivered meals for Family House guests supporting their family members seeking medical treatment in Pittsburgh.
“I’m ready for it to go back to normal as long as the [virus] numbers stay down low,” line cook Miles Smith said, while across from him in the kitchen sous chef Kilian Hiner was shaving down and slicing asparagus for the Oscar Benedict on Sunday’s brunch menu.
“We are taking kind of a cautious approach and keeping everyone safe — the team and our guests. That’s our No. 1 priority. We are not going to change much from the 50% capacity — we don’t really have the space to. Our 75% looks like our 50% plus a few bar seats.”
Aaron Buettner is the bartender there and he has sorely missed the people aspect of his job.
“It’s not the same,” he said while he crushed ice and mixed up a gin concoction called an Apricot Bramble. “One of the things I love about bartending is you can get people together and find something in common. Changing a drink by yourself into a drink with friends with great atmosphere, to me that’s what bartending is all about.”
But just because restaurants can open to 75% capacity doesn’t mean they have to — or will at all.
At Khalil’s in Bloomfield, sisters Leila and Delal Khalil were preparing a traditional Syrian Easter feast, but still for takeout only.
“Easter is a big deal with us Syrian Christian-Orthodox people. We go all out — roasted lamb, grape leaves, kibbeh — it’s a very cultural thing,” Delal Khalil said, adding that it was nice to be doing Easter meals again. “We closed [last year in March] the day before the governor’s order and I was running around like the Clorox queen. I couldn’t take the stress. It was freaking me out.”
She said they stayed closed until late June, when they “turned our driveway into a dining room” and even did kitchen work outside through the summer. When colder weather came back, they reverted to takeout only. They will stay that way until May, likely to reopen for outdoor service again after Orthodox Easter and will consider resuming indoor service.
“My brother has a heart condition,” she said. “We were terrified to have employees indoors for fear of them getting sick. We’re a small family restaurant, and we’re all together anyway, but we are in a pandemic and guess what guys — it’s not over, it’s serious and there are variants.”
And that gives Mr. Dawso pause.
Although his 75-year-old quintessential dive bar Jack’s has become an icon of Pittsburgh nightlife — and morning drinks for third shifters getting off work — he is leery of yet another shutdown.
Despite vaccination efforts hitting a stride, the University of Pittsburgh last week said its students must shelter in place to contain outbreaks on campus, and the Allegheny County Health Department director, Dr. Deborah Bogen, said a recent uptick in cases had the “foundation for asurge.”
“I’m very nervous,” Mr. Dawso said. “The time, effort and money involved in reopening is a lot. It’s a lot of work. I’d hate for it to be Groundhog Day all over again from June.”