Restaurants across the state have been required to close their dine-in facilities since mid-March to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. On April 27, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that restaurants will have the option to reopen dining room spaces with limited occupancy beginning May 1.
However, as much as Executive Chef and owner Rob Snow longs to see his restaurant filled with customers once again, he said he will not reopen Greenhouse on May 1.
“We are not even considering reopening at this time,” Snow said. “Logistically it doesn’t make sense for us.”
Requirements to reopen
The option to reopen is laced with several stipulations, which area restaurant owners say complicate the effort. Customers must remain at least 6 feet apart from other parties while waiting for a table, sitting down to eat and at all other times. Tables are limited to six or fewer people. Perhaps most debilitating for restaurant owners, Snow said, is that occupancy is limited to 25% of stated capacity, per Abbott’s orders.
At Greenhouse, a 25% cap on occupancy is approximately 20 people, Snow said. Given the staffing needs for a combination of dine-in customers, to-go and delivery orders, reopening the dine-in facility at a fourth of its occupancy does not add up financially, he said.
“We are definitely not going to try to open the Round Rock location until the capacity requirements get larger,” Snow said. “A 25% cap makes everything way more difficult on us.”
Abbott published a three-page checklist designed to help restaurant owners understand steps needed to reopen this week. Among the requirements and suggestions: screening employees for symptoms of the coronavirus; using disposable menus; asking employees to maintain 6 feet of separation and/or wear a face covering; and frequently disinfecting doorknobs, tables and chairs, among other measures.
“There’s a lot that will need to be done differently that will take some training, time to get up to speed,” Snow said. “We’re not rushing it.”
Safety concerns
Greenhouse is not the only local restaurant that will not reopen this week. Jose Leon, manager of Huahuasco Grill in Pflugerville, said he wants more assurances that the rate of coronavirus infections is falling before he reopens his dine-in facilities.
“We feel it’s not safe to reopen our dining room at this time,” Leon said. “We will consider opening when the infections are at a lower level.”
Huahuasco Grill, which opened two weeks before Abbott’s orders first closed dine-in facilities, is offering to-go and delivery services at this time. As a small, family-run establishment, Leon said opening on the cusp of a pandemic was not in the original business plan.
“It pretty much blindsided us,” Leon said. “We weren’t prepared for this. I mean, no one was. But we weren’t thinking we’d open right before a pandemic started. Profit expectations aside, we just want to do our part. Not think just for ourselves and be selfish but to really look out for our community.”
Snow echoed a similar sentiment about a sense of responsibility to keep customers and employees safe.
“Personally, I don’t feel super comfortable with people inside the restaurant and in close proximity right now,” Snow said. “I’d like to see the number of cases go down more first.”
Impacts on business
Tumy Diep, co-owner of Broth & Basil in Pflugerville, said she is weighing health risks alongside employment needs for her staff as she decides whether to reopen her Vietnamese restaurant this week.
“We are trying not to make any rash decisions,” Diep said. “We know the decisions we make affect our community. So we give a lot of thought and research into when and if it’s safe for us to open.”
Diep said with Broth and Basil’s dine-in facilities closed the past six weeks, revenue is down approximately 55%. The restaurant is operating with reduced hours and is offering to-go and delivery services at this time.
Despite a hit to the restaurant’s bottom line, Diep said she is willing to wait for additional data regarding the coronavirus, specifically how it spreads, as well as a stronger decline in new cases before reopening.
While many restaurants do not plan to reopen dine-in options at this time—due to a combination of logistics, financial projections on the cost to reopen and concerns about health and safety—Diep expressed hope for the future.
“Community is everything,” she said. “Right now, we miss our patrons, the conversations. Restaurants are more than just places that serve food. We offer a haven for people to get together, laugh, share memories.”
