‘Normalcy’ returns — but at what cost?
Reopening: S.F. takes its first steps back to Before Times
What was likely the first plate of fried calamari served at a San Francisco eatery in months with an honesttogoodness roof over its head landed in front of Joseph Daly on Wednesday morning.
“This is not about bravery,” Daly said, taking a bite inside the Wipeout Bar & Grill at Pier 39. “We have to get back to some sort of normalcy. This is a start.”
Daly and his companion, Andrea Brown, felt so strongly about normalcy that they flew from their home in Orange County when they heard San Francisco was taking the next steps to getting back to the way things were in the distant, unmasked past.
“It was worth it,” he said. “We wanted to get away for the day, and we wanted to help San Francisco return to how it used to be.”
On Wednesday, San Francisco restaurants got the OK to welcome customers — or 25% of them, anyway — back inside, away from the sea of parklets that have sprung up on San Francisco thoroughfares like mushrooms after a downpour.
Some restaurants took off the blue tape from their inside tables and threw open their front doors. Some said they were going to do it later in the week. Some said it was just a little too soon to do it at all.
Rica Joson, a customer at Fog Harbor Fish House, said her plate of calamari was as much a statement as it was squid.
“I think people are too afraid,” she said. “If we keep on living with fear, we’ll keep on living with fear. We have to help our businesses. I want to show people this is a safe thing to do.”
Not everyone agreed, and the ones who didn’t were sitting in the sunshine Wednesday.
“Personally, I’m not comfortable just yet,” said Natalie Shami, who was eating huevos rancheros at an outdoor table next to Mama’s on Washington Square. “I want to support businesses, but it’s all about risk tolerance. I have to think not just about me, but my parents and my grandmother.”
Restaurant hostess Veronica Singh said the restaurant would open four indoor tables on Thursday and allow 12 diners to sit at them. The restaurant business during pandemics is complicated. Her indoor capacity is 50 diners, and a fourth of 50 people isn’t 12 people but 12.5 people. But she said it would be bad for business to cut customers in half.
At Caffe Trieste on Vallejo Street, the morning crowd was gathered at its usual parklet table. The manager said the indoor space was so small that 25% of it would be practically nothing, so it didn’t seem worth it to set up the indoor tables. And many customers were just as happy outside, as long as the weather obliged, which, on Wed
“We’re taking baby steps. I’m ready to go back inside, but we have to respect the restaurant’s decision.”
Patrick Rylee, Caffe Trieste parklet customer
nesday, it did.
“We’re taking baby steps,” said one of the Caffe Trieste customers, Patrick Rylee, feeding the caffe’s finest stuff to his dog, Magoo. “I’m ready to go back inside, but we have to respect the restaurant’s decision.”
A few blocks away at Piazza Pellegrini, owner Dario Hadjian said he was ready to make three tables available to 12 diners and, he added, they should seriously consider the lobster ravioli at $29.95.
At John’s Grill on Ellis Street, owner John Konstin said his servers were all vaccinated, life is good and the plate of lamb chops that detective Sam Spade would have eaten if he were a real person was $34.95. Reservations were going fast, and the last available one for Wednesday was for 7:30 p.m. After that, it would be more difficult getting your hands on a table than on the Maltese Falcon.
With San Francisco officially ensconced back in the state’s red reopening tier, not only restaurants were allowed to reopen indoors but movie theaters, museums and gyms as well.
On Mission Street, the movie complexes at the Metreon and the San Francisco Centre said they planned to reopen on Friday. Between them that’s 25 screens, and not all of them will be showing “Tom and Jerry,” although at least four of them will.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopens to the public on Sunday. Admission on that day will be free, but reservations are required, and about half of them have already been scooped up. The Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park announced it would reopen on March 17. The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park reopens on Saturday, and online reservations are recommended, because Saturday falls on one of the art museum’s popular free admission days.
Declaring doors are open and getting people to walk through them turn out to be two different things. At Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Washington Square — where it took the efforts of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and an order by the U.S. Supreme Court last month to allow indoor services — attendance for the 9 a.m. Mass on Wednesday totaled three worshipers.
At the Bay Club on Greenwich Street, the indoor treadmills, stair climbers and exercise bikes were available to 10% of the people who would normally use them, which means even more patience is called for than normal when trying to use the more popular equipment.
Martine Moeller of San Francisco, her blue mat rolled up under her arm, said she was excited about rejoining the morning exercise class at Bay Club and doing her sweating indoors instead of outdoors for the first time in months.
“It’s time,” she said. “If we’re worried, we can always open the window to let in the fresh air. I feel comfortable with it. We cannot forever be living with paranoia.”