DELTA VS. INDOOR DINERS
Restaurants brace for winter, worry that diners won’t want to eat inside
With cooler temperatures descending upon Massachusetts, some restaurant owners are beginning to worry about their businesses as they say diners are still sometimes hesitant to eat indoors amid the pandemic.
“We’re a small restaurant; we live or live or die by a matter of 20 butts in seats,” said Erin Miller, owner and executive chef at Urban Hearth in Cambridge. “It can make a big difference when people aren’t willing to sit inside. We can’t get by on half reservations.”
Last winter, Urban Hearth, a 24-seat upscale restaurant, was able to get by on takeout orders, and closed down the dining room. With the city’s permission, Miller was able to expand her seating capacity two-fold by spilling out onto the street and sidewalk, she said.
Once people were vaccinated in early summer, diners were more willing to eat inside if the weather was bad, she said.
“Once (the delta variant) started to spike, it was right back to absolute refusal to move inside, even for people who are vaccinated,” she said. “That really gives me pause for the winter.” This past Thursday, only two of her 38 diners ate inside.
Although Miller said her clientele, which skews older, tends to be more cautious than average, survey results from the National Restaurant Association confirm her observations. In Massachusetts, 82% of restaurant operators said last month that their restaurants experienced a decline in customer demand for indoor dining since news of the delta variant spread.
Miller said she’s also incurred extra costs from her outdoor dining space, including the buildout of the patio and the purchase of outdoor furniture, heat lamps and propane. She estimates that her restaurant goes through $200 of propane a night.
“When you’re only grossing a couple thousand in total sales, then $200 is a big bite,” she said.
To offset these costs as the temperature drops, Miller said she’s hoping to offer takeout Thanksgiving and Christmas meals as she did last year, but is hoping not to fully switch to takeout again. “Our whole thing is about the diner experience, and creating conversation and bringing people together around the table,” she said. “That’s kind of hard to do from the other side of an aluminum pan.”
Jack Bardy, who owns the Beehive and Cosmica in Boston, said the unpredictable weather can also make outdoor dining difficult to staff.
“You’ve got to give people steady work, so you can’t just occasionally be open and not open,” he said. By around November, though, it’s too cold for both patrons and staff outside, despite the canopies, heat lamps and blankets he offers, he said.
Although he called his industry “a business of inches,” he’s optimistic about the upcoming winter, especially once children can get vaccinated, making their parents less worried about dining indoors.
Chris Coombs, who owns restaurants dbar and Deuxave in Boston, is even more optimistic, as diners ate outside at Deuxave on Valentine’s Day last year in 15-degree weather. He plans to offer outdoor dining all winter long.
“There are a lot of guests who prefer to sit outside,” he said. “If it rains, they’re not canceling their reservation. They’re just moving their reservation indoors.”