Sam Gerberding, Inn of the Governors and Del Charro

Il Piatto — gone. L’Olivier — closed for good. Cafe Sonder — done.

Dozens of other restaurants, in Santa Fe and statewide, have gone into hibernation, waiting out the winter with the hope they can come out of their temporary slumber and open their doors again. Welcome to the restaurant business. “To have them gone changes the energy of this town,” says Sam Gerberding, who manages two restaurants in Santa Fe and serves as president of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, which represents about 1,300 members.

Gone, too, are thousands of jobs. Gerberding has delivered the bad news

many times, laying off 30 percent of his staff at Del Charro and the restaurant at Inn of the Governors. The rest are working reduced hours as the hotel and restaurant — which is only offering outdoor dining at this point — struggle to stay in operation.

“We’re limping along with a core group of employees,” he says.

As president of the association, Gerberding says he knows even those still in operation won’t make it for long.

“This is a big part of what our whole country is struggling with,” he says. “Gone are people’s haunts, patterns, places to go to see and be seen by others and to feel a sense of life and community. And when they can’t go out, they struggle.”

Even those that have temporarily closed, he says, leave a mark.

“When an institution like Geronimo or The Compound has to make that decision, that’s heavy,” he notes. “These are the folks who have weathered multiple storms, and if they can’t survive, it carries a heavy weight with it. It carries a weight for everyone.”

Just how many come out of it once the pandemic subsides is hard to answer, in part because it might depend on the financial and business climate at that time, he says.

Gerberding turned 50 in September and remembers his birthday as one of introspection, of wondering where he’s been and what he has done and where he is going in the future.

“It’s like how our industry is feeling now,” he says. “Swimming upstream and asking, ‘How do we do this?’ ”