San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
ALFRESCO IN ESCONDIDO
Customers respond when dining room ban leads to swift conversion of Grand Avenue into outdoor eatery zone
Customers respond when dining room ban leads to an outdoor eatery zone on Grand Avenue.
By noon on Monday, the temperature on Grand Avenue in Escondido was 92 and climbing, but the heat didn’t discourage a couple hundred diners from turning out for lunch in the city’s newly launched outdoor dining district.
On July 10, the city closed three blocks of Grand down to one traffic lane in each direction to allow restaurant owners — stung by the latest social-distancing orders that prohibit indoor dining — to set up outdoor seating areas. Restaurateurs say public response has been positive and diners say they’re grateful for the opportunity to support the businesses.
“I think it’s great what the city is doing,” said Escondido resident Tina Ramirez, who was sharing a lunch of burgers and fries outside Burger Bench restaurant on Monday with her friend Nancy Sloan of San Diego. “These guys have all been suffering, and I’m glad the city recognized it and did something about it.”
Amber Tarrac, Escondido’s deputy director of economic development, said the city had been studying for months the possibility of closing a portion of Grand Avenue to help downtown restaurants and bars, but there was disagreement over where it could be implemented and how. Then, when the county announced a three-week closure of indoor restaurants and bars beginning July 7, officials with the city and the Escondido Downtown Business Association leapt into action to clear all the project’s hurdles in just three working business days.
Between Juniper and Maple streets, the former parking spaces on either side of Grand have been blocked off with concrete barriers and are now available as dining space. Markers for new parking spaces have been painted on the street outside the barriers.
To qualify for the program, the restaurants must fill out a one-page city application with their seating plan. Bars can also apply as long as they serve food or work with a licensed vendor to provide food service. Tarrac said most permits are being approved within 24 hours, and permit fees have been waived. So far, 10 permits have been approved, one is pending, and another
was withdrawn by a bar that opted not to serve food, she said.
Escondido’s DBA has also chipped in to help with the program. It has set aside $10,000 for outdoor shade coverings, tables and chairs. It is also underwriting the $100 permit fee restaurants must pay the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control agency for outdoor alcohol service.
As popular as the program appears to be, Tarrac said the special permits are only temporary, created to allow for outdoor service for as long as the dining room ban in in place.
“The official word on this is we’re doing it on a temporary basis for three weeks. We will reassess what happens if the public health order is extended after three weeks. We’re being very flexible as a city,” she said.
Christine Weisberger, assistant manager of Burger Bench, said she has received almost universally positive responses from customers since Saturday about the expanded outdoor seating, which was completely full at lunchtime Monday with two parties waiting in line.
“We’re able to make people happy, and every customer has been ecstatic,” Weisberger said. “We appreciate that the city put up the barriers so our customers feel really safe out here.”
Weisberger said Burger Bench has remained open for takeout since the pandemic began in mid-march, but to boost its sales, the company developed an online ordering system that has been so successful, she believes the owners will continue using the system even after the in-house dining ban is lifted.
“Especially on nights and weekends, our curbside business has been huge,” she said.
Most of the outdoor tables were full on Monday at A Delight of France, a 30-yearold French bakery and bistro owned by Alberta and Saka Agyan and their daughter, Grace. A sign on the bakery case, filled with the shop’s signature almond croissants, reads: “Love wins, we are grateful, we’ll get through this!”
Grace Agyan said that when the pandemic struck, her family had to let all of their employees go except for one kitchen worker. For nine weeks, the Agyans worked every day running a takeout operation. When they reopened in June, they brought back all of their staff, but social-distancing rules limited their dine-in service to just 25 percent of their former capacity. Although the dining room is now closed, the new outdoor seating area allows the family to provide 40 percent of their former seating.
“There has been a lot of trial and error, but it’s been a good experience,” Agyan said, adding that the high temperatures last weekend barely slowed down business. “We were shocked that people came out in the heat. People were ordering hot sauces on their omelets, and I was saying ‘Are you sure?’ ”
Jeannette Mcbrearty, who owns Hunsaker at Vincent’s restaurant and the new pop-up eatery The Flying Toad on Grand Avenue, launched her outdoor sidewalk service on Friday. For now, she and chef Brandon Hunsaker will just serve the casual Flying Toad menu since street dining doesn’t really lend itself to Hunsaker’s fine dining fare. She’s built an upgraded outdoor shade structure, brought in live plants and wine barrels and had a graffiti artist decorate the concrete barriers to give the outdoor area some pizazz.
“I think the buzz about what they’re doing here is going to grow,” Mcbrearty said. “It’s super cute down here with the outdoor eating. It’s very European, and a lot of people have never experienced something like that here.”
At Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, manager Diana Gil was busy running lunch orders to the restaurant’s partially full outdoor tables on Monday. She said all of the seats were full in the evenings last weekend, with a line of people waiting. Gil has worked at the pizzeria for 25 years, and she said the owners are grateful to the city for moving so quickly to make the project happen.
When Filippi’s reopened in June, social-distancing restrictions reduced the restaurant’s indoor tables from 40 to 15. Now with the new special permit, they’ve been able to move 11 tables outside. Although it’s a smaller number than what they were serving indoors, health-conscious customers who may have been cautious about dining inside a restaurant are eager to return for outdoor seating.
“People are super excited to be here,” Gil said.
Seated outside Filippi’s awaiting a to-go lunch order on Monday were two of the restaurant’s most faithful customers. Two to three times a month for the past 35 years, Ron and Retha Harrison have been driving to the restaurant from their home in Oceanside. They say the torpedo sandwiches, sausage pizza, lasagna, ravioli, house-baked bread and Italian dressing are the best in North County.
“This is our place,” Retha said. “We love it. Whenever we want a hot meal, this is always the place we’ll come.”
For the past four months, the Harrisons have ordered all of their Filippi’s food to go. But now that outdoor dining is available, they’re looking forward to returning soon for a sit-down meal.
“I think it’s absolutely awesome what the city has done,” Ron said. “The restaurants need the support. This was a great idea.”
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com