Lunch with a side order of anxiety
U.S. restaurants among first businesses given green light to reopen
As states start lifting their lockdown orders, America’s burger joints, pizzerias, taquerias and diners find themselves on the reopening economy’s front line. Whether they’re ready or not.
Restaurants are among the first businesses allowed to throw open their doors in many places easing virus-fighting restrictions. And after weeks of laying off staff and living off takeout orders, owners can’t wait — even if they’re not quite sure how to make it work.
Cutting the number of seated customers by half or more, as some states are requiring, will devastate finances already in terrible shape. Servers in masks don’t make for an inviting atmosphere. Forget salt-andpepper shakers on the tables. One restaurant in Iowa plans to start dine-in service by seating only truckers, because they tend to eat alone.
In Texas, the biggest of the mostly southern states leading the way, the Mexican restaurant Hugo’s is waiting until after Cinco de Mayo — an occasion not made for social distancing. “That’s a pretty raucous time,” said Tracy Vaught, who owns the establishment and three others in the Houston area with her husband, award-winning chef Hugo Ortega. “I was worried about opening up and us not being very experienced with the new protocols.” Major restaurant chains are making adjustments as well. Dine Brands Global Inc. is getting rid of condiments like its signature syrup containers on tables as IHOP locations begin opening.
Its Applebee’s restaurants have also nixed shared condiments like ketchup, chief executive officer Steve Joyce said in an interview.
Plastic plates and forks, knives and spoons are available if customers want those instead of porcelain plates and silverware. Kitchens are opening with fewer staff members, allowing for social distancing, he said. “We’ve got team members that are probably a little nervous about coming back, and we want them to know we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe,” Joyce said. “And this will be a gradual reopening process. It gives us time to make sure we’re getting this right.”
Brinker International Inc. is spacing tables 6 to 8 feet apart in its Chili’s restaurants that are allowed to reopen, executives said on its earnings call Wednesday.
They said the chain’s “fairly large” dining rooms give them an advantage. Workers will be wearing masks and gloves, and there will be a table at each restaurant’s entryway stocked with hand sanitizer and paper towels for guests. But patrons won’t be allowed to sit at Chili’s iconic margarita bars — it’s too hard to do social distancing there, the company says.
While Starbucks plans to reopen most of its U.S. stores next week, they will just be for drivethru, delivery and pickup orders. Even in states like Texas that will allow sit-down service, Starbucks’s dining areas will remain closed, a company spokesperson said.
With coronavirus deaths still rising in many places, U.S. restaurateurs worry about safety for their customers and their staff — which often includes their family. They plan in fear that the virus could strike their own kitchens, or that another infection spike in the larger community could force them to shut down all over again.
“I don’t want to open prematurely and, two weeks later, they’ll say, ‘Oh no, we have to close again,’ ” said Crystal Peterson, who owns Yo’ Mama’s in Birmingham, Ala., with her mother.
For now, Alabama is limiting restaurants to takeout and curbside service. That works for Peterson, who is concerned about protecting her staff and her 63-year-old mother, Denise, typically found grilling burgers, catfish and pork chops.
“When we come back, we’re only going to use paper products for the first 60 days,” Peterson said. “Everything will be disposable.” The coronavirus lockdown has devastated American restaurants, which employ 15.6 million people, according to the National Restaurant Association.
“One word to describe the impact is ‘catastrophic,’” said Emily Williams Knight, CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association. The industry “went off a cliff the day our dining rooms were closed across the state,” she said. Her association estimates that 10 per cent of Texas restaurants will have shuttered permanently by the end of April.
In northern Iowa, restaurant owner Amanda Weig says she’s looking forward to welcoming her customers and employees back. But even though her county will let restaurants reopen on Friday, she’s going to wait a few weeks.
Resuming service in her 120person eatery in Algona, a town of 5,500 people, isn’t safe right now because she and her husband won’t be able to ensure that diners are following socialdistancing guidelines. When they do eventually open their doors to dine-in customers, only truckers will be allowed in first, she said. It will be easier to spread them apart because they often eat alone or with just one other person, she added.