Berkeley may allow more outdoor dining

ers. Following the Bay Area shelterinplace order, Berkeley’s food scene was hardhit by layoffs and closures. Arreguín said the urgency tied to the proposal is a direct response to growing fears that more restaurants will close in the coming weeks if they’re unable to generate additional revenue. More outdoor seating could be a solution, he said, but added that decisions still have to be made regarding what streets would be closed off.

Dona Savitsky, who owns

Tacubaya in Berkeley, reopened this week for the first time since March. She said business is down — the restaurant is doing around $2,000 in sales per weekday through takeout and delivery orders, compared to the $5,000 to $7,000 it was doing before the pandemic — and any proposal to expand seating for restaurants would be a boon to the industry.

“In theory, I think it’s a great idea. Everyone wants to sit outside anyway, and if that’s going to increase our sales, oh boy do we need that,” she said.

Still, Savitsky said she has questions about the proposal’s potential implementation. She said she wonders about alcohol sales outdoors and how the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control laws would be applied between restaurants that have liquor licenses and those that do not, but happen to share the same outdoor seating on a street corner or sidewalk.

Gianluca Guglielmi, who operates Berkeley’s Donato and Co. restaurant with chef Donato Scotti, said he approves of the proposal, but wonders about the cost to restaurant owners. Outdoor dining is more complicated than just moving a couple of chairs, he said.

“You would have to buy outdoor furniture and those kinds of things. If people are sitting out there for a few hours at your restaurant, they want to be comfortable,” he said. “If this is just something that lasts a few weeks or a few short months, it might not be worth buying so many new things to put outside. But if it lasts longer, then you have to start thinking about that and making that investment.”

Berkeley’s proposal comes after San Francisco officials announced plans to use streets and parking lots for dining. San Jose leaders took a similar approach with their proposal, called Al Fresco San Jose.

Arreguín said he envisions the outdoor dining in Berkeley lasting beyond the pandemic.

“(Berkeley) is going to be moving into Phase 2 soon, but we’re going to move ahead thoughtfully and based on data,” he said, referring to a stage in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan for a gradual reopening of the state economy where more businesses can reopen if public health milestones are met. “So not only is this proposal around how to start reopening restaurants and cafes, but it is also a way to reclaim our streets and public spaces for public use.”

As of Thursday, 19 counties were approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to quickly reopen their local economies. The counties — Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Nevada, Mariposa, Placer, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne and Yuba — met stateset benchmarks in containing the coronavirus.