Hopeful owners, eager patrons enter new phase

A glimpse of normality returned to Palm Beach County on Monday as restaurants, hair and nail salons began Phase 1 re-opening. For many businesses it was the first time they had been allowed to open in nearly two months.

For South Florida, the opening represents the first toe-dip into a larger process that will include Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which have the bulk of active COVID-19 cases in the state. Broward County officials indicated that a date to begin re-opening could be announced by Tuesday, while Miami-Dade may begin Phase 1 on May 18.

Meanwhile, it was all systems go at the ManCave for Men barber shop just off of Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. Before noon

on Monday all available appointments were already booked up.

Barber Brandon Clark worked on customer Dominick Colabella, who hadn’t had a haircut since March 10. Colabella wore a face mask as Clark worked his clippers. Clark wore one, too.

The masks are just one of a number of guidelines salons, barbershops and nail salons will operate under in the coming days. They include requiring customers to make appointments and reducing the capacity inside the business to 50%.

Restaurants have their own guidelines that include operating at 25% capacity and keeping a minimum of six feet between parties. Face masks or coverings are strongly suggested, but not required.

Colabella, for his part, didn’t mind the new conditions for getting a haircut. He was just happy to get one.

He lives half the year in Connecticut and delayed his scheduled trip back north because of the reopening, he said. “Barbershops in Connecticut won’t be open for another two weeks.”

Down the street from the ManCave, the Bond Street Salon was also seeing brisk business on their first day back.

“Well, as busy as we can be,” explained stylist Jacquie Senft. Stella Hansen of Delray Beach sat in Senft’s chair to get her platinum extensions replaced with her face protected by a surgical mask.

“They’ve been in since the beginning of March,”

Hansen said of her extensions. She said she was overjoyed when she found out the salon would open. “I was the first one to book and the first one here.“

At Oxygen Hair Salon in Boca Raton, one customer sat in the small salon on Monday morning as the owner, Jill Marshall, worked.

Gone was the usual smell of dyes and hair spray. Nearly every surface was perfumed with cleaning spray — a scent that customers in most establishments will become familiar with.

“We have to clean between every station, every customer,” Marshall said. “We’re trying to keep it absolutely clean to keep everybody comfortable.”

Marshall said her salon can only book one customer at a time because of its size. She anticipated seeing a grand total of four clients Monday.

The strict guidelines means it will be a long time before Marshall will financially recover, she said. “There will be a significant decrease in revenue.”

Open with a socially distant hug

Rosemarie Edwards, the manager of the iconic wood-paneled Tom Sawyer restaurant in Boca Raton, was also apprehensive about how the next few days would go as she erected lawn signs advertising her opening on Monday morning.

“I’m a little nervous but so glad to be back,” she said.

Edie and Kurt Hoppe were so eager to sit down at the restaurant again that they were the first of about

four customers waiting in line for the doors to open at 7 a.m. Edie Hoppe peered through the glass doors.

“We’ve been coming here for years,” she said through her face mask.

When the doors opened, Martha Vallilee, a waitress, greeted the couple with what she called a “virtual hug” from across the room.

In Delray Beach, Larry Gibas and his son Mike, were among the first customers at The Office, a retro-styled gastropub. Father and son enjoyed two cold beers close to noon for what felt like the first time in a long time.

“We’re bar people,” Gibas said. “It’s been boring drinking at home.”

Neither customers nor employees bothered to don masks inside the establishment, a decision manager Marcello Buruiana said he has left up to customers and employees.

“What am I going to do, force them to wear masks?” said Buruiana, holding up a printed copy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order re-opening restaurants. “I’m fine with it. I would have been sick by now. I’ve been working takeout every day and I’m fine.”

Buruiana said that the 40 or so diners that he is allowed to seat in his restaurant will improve the meager profits he was making from takeout, but he wouldn’t go so far as to celebrate.

“You don’t pay 25 percent of the payroll and 25 percent of the insurance, do you? Those costs are still there,” he said, before hedging himself. “It’s better than not re-opening at all.”

At Gary’s Rack Farmhouse Kitchen in Boca Raton, colorful chairs sat outside, spaced exactly six feet

apart as the restaurant prepared to open shortly before noon. Among the guidelines restaurants must follow is to prioritize outdoor seating.

“Right now we’re just hoping for the best, hoping we can continue to serve our community,” said Diona Solis, the general manager. “To get re-opened is the first step.”

Solis said the restaurant can have about 36 people dining at one time. She said the day after Mother’s Day is typically a slow one, but that might change — given the circumstances. “I’m really hopeful.” Within the first half-hour of opening, some 20 diners devoured lunch outside.

Owner Gary Rack said that after furloughing 120 of his 140 employees, he’s grateful his waitstaff will have jobs again. But he is concerned that the timing of the re-open, at the tailend of snowbird season, may also harm businesses like his.

“I’m encouraged by the crowds today but we’re opening at the sluggish part of the season,” Rack said. “We missed Mother’s Day and Easter and now it won’t pick up again until October.”

A guarded approach

While many restaurants were eager to welcome whatever customers they could on Monday, others continued to take a guarded approach and remain closed except for takeout and delivery.

Max’s Grille in Mizner Park will open Wednesday, according to Tim Baker, a server.

Baker was outside the restaurant talking to colleagues following a staff

meeting about re-opening. He said he feels safe and confident about the careful measures management is taking. “I’m so excited to get people back in our seats and make them feel like they’re the No. 1 priority,” he said.

Although Rex Baron, a post-apocalyptic-themed restaurant tucked into the Town Center Mall, could have opened Monday, it will wait until the mall itself opens — a date that hasn’t been decided yet, according to a spokeswoman for the mall.

When Rex Baron does open, they will limit capacity to 20%, according to manager Igor Colina. “We want people who sit down at the table to feel comfortable and want to come back,” Colina said. “If they feel it’s too many people, that’s scary.”

Colina said each table in the restaurant will also have a bar code linking to the online menu so customers can use their phones to figure out what they want to order instead of plastic-covered menus.

Retail therapy

On Monday, the Town Center Mall itself resembled the throes of quarantine with shuttered doors and a near-desolate parking lot.

Across Palm Beach, retail seemed to be getting off to a sluggish start as many shops remain closed.

Melissa Doyle and her next-door neighbor, Elise Rubenstein, were among the few shoppers out. The two purchased chic skirts and dresses at the downtown Delray Beach clothing store Coco & Co.

“It’s so nice to finally be in stores again,” Doyle said.

She said she has been itching for more retail stores and restaurants to open up and resurrect the normally bustling downtown. “These places are what give Delray Beach its identity so I’m pleased they’re opening up, even at a fraction.”

Swimwear usually represents a significant chunk of sales at Quiet Storm Surf Shop in downtown Delray Beach. But without Palm Beach County beaches — which remained closed on Monday and are scheduled to reopen May 18 — manager Ashley DePaul wondered, nervously, how many customers would bother to patronize her shop. Still, she didn’t think twice about reopening.

“Our main source of traffic comes from all these Atlantic Avenue restaurants,” says DePaul, who donned masks with her coworkers.

DePaul says Quiet Storm is now “overflowing with inventory,” and to steer more foot traffic she taped a paper sign to the front door: “20 percent off storewide!” The gambit appeared to work: Within three hours, she had already made 30 sales.

Dawn Ricca, of Boynton Beach, picked up a sundress at Quiet Storm. She said she takes a pragmatic view about shopping under Phase 1: If employees seem skittish, she’ll wear a mask, but otherwise won’t bother because she “feels claustrophobic.”

Like many, she is happy about the county creeping back to life. Though she wishes the beach was part of the immediate equation. “It’s weird that the inside of this surf shop is deemed safer than the open air of the beach,” she said.