Indoor dining might be near
Industry crushed by city shutdown could get lifeline
San Francisco restaurants may once again welcome diners inside by the end of the month, Mayor London Breed said Friday, news that should please both struggling restaurateurs and people hungering for the experience of being served food at a table, complete with walls and ceiling.
The city will allow restaurants to open at 25% capacity, for up to 100 people, after the state approves San Francisco’s move to the orange tier in California’s health monitoring system that permits indoor dining. That’s expected to happen Sept. 29, if the city’s coronavirus statistics remain stable.
The health department is working with the industry to develop health and safety guidelines once restaurants and cafes are allowed to reopen.
Resuming indoor dining in San Francisco, which has more than 4,000 restaurants, is key to an economic recovery from the pandemic shutdown, Breed said in a statement Friday.
But as restaurant owners weigh the prospect of reopening — even with added safety measures — some wondered whether increasing the risk of exposure to their employees is worth resuming operations at reduced capacity.
Since March 17, when restaurants were ordered to shut their doors to diners but allowed to offer takeout and delivery, dozens of restaurants have closed, many permanently. Outdoor dining was permitted — with social distancing precautions — on June 12 but some restaurants lacked the space, or desire, to begin serving meals on patios, sidewalks or cordonedoff parking spaces.
“I want to make sure we keep these businesses open,” Breed said while touring a coronavirus testing center in the Ingleside district. “I want to make sure we don’t lose the fabric of San Francisco and what makes San Francisco so special.”
Breed made the announcement with Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s health director, who said restaurants will have to demonstrate that they meet the standards for safely reopening. Details of those requirements were not released Friday, but are expected to include placing tables 6 feet apart and requiring both servers and diners to wear masks when not actively eating or drinking.
“We appreciate our vibrant restaurant community’s sacrifice throughout this pandemic, and we want to thank them for their cooperation and patience that has brought us to this point,” Colfax said in a statement. “While health officials continue to monitor the virus, we also need San Franciscans to continue practicing the health and safety precautions needed for us to reopen our city gradually.”
San Francisco has a red rating in the state’s tiered reopening process, which allowed the city to authorize indoor gyms, hair salons and nail salons and barbershops to reopen on Monday.
Since San Francisco is not likely to move into the orange zone until at least the end of the month, Breed told The Chronicle, it gives the city time to develop specific indoor dining precautions that
“I want to make sure we don’t lose the fabric of San Francisco and what makes San Francisco so special.”
Mayor London Breed, while touring a COVID19 testing center in the Ingleside district
will prevent diners and employees from spreading the coronavirus.
“Our measured approach to reopening is grounded in science and facts, and science clearly tells us that indoor activities come with additional risk,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, the city’s health officer, who’s responsible for crafting the orders guiding San Francisco’s response to the pandemic.
“We must work with the restaurants and business owners to implement strong safety protocols that help mitigate this additional risk and protect the safety of our employees, customers and the community,” Aragón said.
Colfax said restaurants will fill out paperwork outlining the COVID19 precautions they’ve taken and make them available for review by customers and health inspectors.
It remains to be seen how many people will visit restaurant dining rooms once they reopen. In an informal poll that The Chronicle conducted on Twitter Friday, 80% of more than 1,100 people who responded said they would not eat inside right away.
Reaction on social media ranged from criticism for planning to reopen indoor dining before playgrounds or schools to railing against the inadequacy of the 25% capacity limit, to concern about whether outdoor dining, takeout and delivery offerings will remain, to worry about the health threats to workers.
Others, including Breed, were thrilled at the prospect of being able to sit down for a served dinner inside a favorite restaurant.
“I cannot wait to eat indoors,” she said. “Sheba Lounge hasn’t been open, I want to see them open. State Bird, I want to see them open, they have an outdoor place. John’s Grill has an outdoor place. And Epic has been outdoors. I’ve been all these places. But, shoot, I’m looking forward to eating anywhere.”
Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, said in a statement that the announcement provided a glimmer of hope in what’s been a dismal and everchanging situation for restaurants and the thousands of workers who’ve been laid off or had their hours slashed.
“The past six months have caused so much pain and financial hardship for many,” she said. “Having a clear and safe path to move forward with indoor dining, even at a limited capacity, will mean restaurants have the chance to reopen and/or see a way to not have to close.”
But many restaurant owners don’t think 25% capacity will be enough to sustain their businesses. Hetal Shah, owner of Indian restaurant August 1 Five, said she’s done the math on several models over the past few weeks and can’t see a scenario where the restaurant will break even.
Shah said she’s not sure diners will even want to eat indoors, but she also knows the restaurant can’t last much longer on takeout and delivery. The restaurant doesn’t have an outdoor dining space, so she had been considering temporarily closing until the indoor dining announcement arrived.
“I feel like I need to do this for my team. I need to let them know we’re trying,” she said. “But I know it’s going to cost us.”
Melissa Perello has kept her two upscale restaurants, Octavia and Frances, closed during the pandemic — and they’ll stay that way despite the 25% allowance. For her small restaurants, that would result in about 12 seats each. That’s not worth the risk of potentially infecting her staff, she said.
Restaurant owners are also concerned that if they open for indoor dining, demand for outdoor seating, takeout or delivery will drop off — meaning they’d take more safety risks and spend more on something that wouldn’t actually help.
Chef Brandon Jew said he’ll take his time crunching numbers and working out new protocols before reopening the dining room at his Chinatown restaurant, Mister Jiu’s, but he’s nervous about flu season and the coming cold weather.
“I have a lot of hesitation and a little trepidation imagining things are going to go right, but I also have to be optimistic and think that might be part of the equation of keeping the restaurant alive if we don’t get a second stimulus,” he said. “That’s where there’s this tug of war: It feels like there isn’t a great answer for anything.”