City eateries buckle down for COVID-19 winter
Smack dab in the middle of the holiday season and located in the shadow of Heinz Field with the Steelers in the midst of a historic 11-0 run and a playoff berth nigh, The Foundry Tap & Table on the North Shore should be riding the gravy train now, and not just for the poutine on the menu.
On a typical Steelers game day, the only independent familyowned restaurant in this entertainment district would do 800 to 900 covers throughout the day, coowner Andrew Stackiewicz said. And at this time of the year, he’d have roughly 45 large holiday parties on the books with 50 employees to staff them.
On Wednesday, however, the place was nearly empty for the Steelers’ thrice-rescheduled, coronavirus-tinged win over the Baltimore Ravens, and Mr. Stackiewicz has just 10 small holiday gatherings lined up, plus a bare-bones wedding reception with a skeleton crew staff.
“The last two to three weeks have been pretty [lousy],” Mr.
Stackiewicz said. “They’ve been [bad]. Everyone’s scared to go out.” He understands — his girlfriend is a nurse.
It’s been bad worldwide for this beleaguered industry — uniquely affected by COVID-19’s easy indoor transmission — and especially for an establishment like his five-year old business, which is largely dependent on major events nearby.
The COVID-19 economy has been ruthless and unsentimental in the Pittsburgh businesses it’s
had a hand in claiming, be they venerable icons — The O, Alexander’s, The Park House, Brillobox — or newer and prominent ones, Union Standard, City Works, Fairlane and Whitfield among them.
“We were cruising. Our numbers were going up and up and up. We were poised to have our best year ever, and then …” Mr. Stackiewicz said, trailing off.
Despite no fans at a truncated baseball season nor concerts at Stage AE, his business was able to ride waves of restrictions for months with its spacious outdoor patio as a buoy. He’s cautiously optimistic that if they can make it to spring, they’ll be OK.
But gutting it out between now and warmer weather and widely available vaccines could be grueling.
Following bars and restaurants on social media of late is akin to the winter school delays and closings in normal years. Myriad establishments have scaled back hours or voluntarily closed because of infections among staff, slow weekday business, and a general concern about health and safety as the virus spreads virtually unabated.
At a briefing Wednesday, Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen conceded that despite new case numbers consistently approaching 1,000 a
day, local officials are loathe to order a shutdown.
“Closing business now comes with more pain than in March. Gone is the financial assistance and extra unemployment to laid off workers,” she said.
Indeed, Congress continues to grapple with passing a bipartisan stimulus bill, while the lame-duck president appears laser-focused on trying to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.
According to the National Restaurant Association, after a six-month rebound, the restaurant industry nationally
shed 17,400 jobs in November, a number based on preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Restaurant staffing levels remain 2.1 million jobs below pre-coronavirus readings,” according to the group, and “a full recovery won’t be seen until late-2021 at the earliest.” One in six restaurants that were open before the pandemic struck are closing for good by the end of 2020.
That leaves operators with little choice but to keep calm and get creative to “86”
the wolf at the door.
To wit: “Igloos” are appearing around Downtown Pittsburgh, and it has nothing to do with the local hockey franchise or its bygone and beloved Civic Arena. Rather, it’s an innovative, if imperfect, manner of providing limited outdoor drinking and dining.
Spencer Warren’s fifth annual “Miracle” holiday popup bar is typically a boozy, raucous, tinsel- and glitterstrewn free-for-all with a Mariah Carey soundtrack that, since 2016, has raised about $100,000 for charities such as 412 Food Rescue and the Alexis Joy Foundation.
This year, the music and festive decor are there, but there’s limited seating and no standing at the bar. Reservations are encouraged, and meal purchases are required. At the bar — which is inside another COVID-19 casualty, the former Pork & Beans on Sixth Street — four of the aforementioned clear plastic and PVC pipe “igloos” have popped up and can seat 10 people.
They are expensive ($1,500 to buy and $600 shipping) and a pain to assemble (“They have like color-coded Ikea instructions,” Mr. Warren said). But for a group rental of $200 for two hours, Mr. Warren aims to offset the cost.
A block away from Miracle at Tako, they’re also using the igloos, as is nearby Bridges & Bourbon on Penn Avenue and the Fir Junction pop-up in Garfield. Proper Brick Oven on Seventh Street has a set of miniature greenhouses for diners.
From a safety standpoint, these keep people segregated from indoor patrons. But as there is minimal airflow, diners should trust each other and ideally be part of the same pod. As a recent Wall Street Journal piece on the topic cautioned, “Don’t dine inside one with anyone you wouldn’t feel safe with inside a phone booth.”
Other restaurants with existing outdoor spaces such as Bakersfield in Downtown,
Kelly O’s Diner and Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle in the Strip, and the Birmingham Bridge Tavern on the South Side have all bolstered their existing outdoor spaces with tents and heat lamps.
At Leo, in Manchester, Michael and Yelena Barnhouse didn’t really have much of an outdoor space for their neighborhood pub, so they built one: a deck with plenty of heaters.
A broad window that opens to the East Carson Street and a handful of tables beneath a tent along South 22nd Street were able to “keep us alive” during the warmer months, said Chris Bonfili, chef and owner of Bonfire Food & Drink on the South Side, adding that he’ll keep putting them out as long as people sit in them.
“We want to give people that option to feel comfortable. I’d put tables on the roof if I could. I’m willing to do anything it takes.”
He’s added a canopy that promotes airflow, heaters and an actual bonfire -— a standup fire pit — to keep diners warm outside in the cold weather.
But he fears that another shutdown could come at any time.
“Every time I make a big inventory order, my [body] tightens and my heart races a little,” Mr. Bonfili said. “It’s a fluid situation with no week-to-week guarantee.”