Napa changes:
State lifts limits in Napa, San Benito counties
Some restaurants ease into sitdown dining.
Seven hours before Cole’s Chop House opened for dinner on Wednesday, the restaurant’s phone lines were inundated with callers scrambling to snag an elusive experience during the coronavirus pandemic: a meal inside a restaurant.
Cole’s Chop House is one of the first Napa restaurants to open for dining in during the second phase of California’s reopening plan. State health officials gave Napa County, widely considered to be the country’s finedining mecca, a green light to reopen this week after it met benchmarks around coronavirus testing and number of cases. San Benito County also approved dining in last week.
Wineries and tasting rooms cannot reopen, disappointing some in Wine Country.
Many Napa dining rooms will remain closed as owners see takeout and delivery service as easier options to manage. Other owners are making the jump to dinein service as quickly as possible, but admit the process is a complicated, drawnout transition, with additional costs.
Cole’s Chop House limited the number of reservations during its first dinner service, said coowner Eric
Keffer, who operates the business with his wife Heather. The hope is a smaller crowd in a controlled setting will make it easier to meet statemandated health and safety measures, which the restaurant has already been implementing for more than three weeks.
“There’s so many things we have to think about with this opening in terms of service. How are we going to change our bread service? How are we going to make
sure our kitchen is appropriate for what we need, and how do we ensure our staff is safe and our guests are safe?” he said.
Many diners remain uncomfortable with eating indoors. According to a recent Chronicle poll with 6,300 submissions, roughly 30% of respondents said they will continue to use takeout and delivery exclusively. Only 25% were comfortable with returning to restaurants limited to half capacity.
In a survey of 216 San Francisco restaurant owners conducted by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, 87% of respondents said they can’t survive on just takeout and delivery.
As Cole’s prepared for its first inperson diners in two months, Christopher Kostow, who runs St. Helena’s celebrated restaurants Charter Oak and the Restaurant at Meadowood, was at home walking his dog. Kostow said he’s thinking about a hybrid takeout and dinein service model at Charter Oak in the near future, but is in no rush. Restaurant at Meadowood will remain closed for now.
Charter Oak has been open for takeout service since March and business has been good, Kostow said. Charter Oak is also producing 1,200 meals per week delivered by charity organizations in Napa County and receives some compensation. But opening his dining room is similar to “restarting a massive factory,” Kostow said, and the process takes a substantial amount of planning.
“You don’t just turn the lights on and everything is back to normal. When it comes to safety, you have to think about whether you’ve tested everyone for coronavirus before they come back to work. Then you need the right PPE to reopen,” he said, referring to personal protective equipment. “The dishwasher has to basically be in a hazmat suit with a face shield. And we don’t want to bring a bunch of employees back and not be able to pay them. It’s a lot to think about.”
San Benito County restaurants are also grappling with financial challenges after getting approval for dinein service last week. Owners say protective equipment is both expensive and in short supply, and hiring more staff is difficult. Meanwhile, dinein service revenue would be a fraction of prepandemic business because of state rules mandating tables be at least 6 feet apart, which limits capacity.
Carlos Hernandez, owner of Heavenly Bakery in Hollister, decided against reopening for diners. He said state requirements — including the amount of space needed for social distancing — were too difficult to meet, and takeout service, which requires a smaller staff, is thriving.
“We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I spoke with some other owners around here and that’s all our point of view. We just don’t think the reopening is worth it,” he said.
But other Hollister restaurants, including Grillin & Chillin Alehouse, opened their doors to the public without hesitation.
Terry Letson, who owns Napa’s Fumé Bistro & Bar, took a more enthusiastic approach to opening. Letson made waves for allowing dinein service at his business for two nights earlier this month in defiance of the public health order. Now, with permission from the state, Letson said he’s ahead of the curve in terms of preparation.
“This is more than just money issues for the industry, it’s about us getting back to doing what we do,” he said. “There’s a core of us that, for lack of a better word, are hardcore restaurant owners, and we pushed really hard to get ready to be open for this moment. It’s all we know.”
Schools in Napa County are reopening on June 1. Retail businesses have already opened in the county. All businesses have to follow social distancing measures and post signs directing people how to protect public health. Face coverings are required inside businesses and workplaces, or when closer than 6 feet from others.
Napa and San Benito counties are among 26 of the state’s 58 counties to move ahead with reopenings. In Napa County, there have been 92 confirmed cases and three COVID19 deaths as of Tuesday.
Keffer said the phones ringing nonstop at Cole’s Chop House are an indicator of how eager local diners are for any sense of normalcy.
“Our restaurant has gone through a lot of the years from fires to earthquakes to floods,” he said. “But in this pandemic, you realize you have strength and the people around us want to see us succeed.”