As he downgraded the state’s COVID-19 risk level, Governor Gary Herbert announced many Utah businesses, including restaurants, can reopen by May 2 — but reopening comes with a lot of new challenges.
First, they still need guidance for new rules and protocols from local health departments. The Salt Lake County Health Department, for one, was working on the final draft of its protocol for businesses right after the governor’s announcement.
Restaurants that reopen for dine-in in Salt Lake County will do so with only half of their tables to ensure social distancing.
The table issue alone will determine whether some businesses survive on a dine-in model or whether they will stick to the take-out or or curbside model they adopted when restaurants were ordered to close. Going to take-out was a big burden for many restaurants, and switching back will be difficult, too.
Lucy Cardenas, owner of Red Iguana, said she is still adjusting after switching her business to take-out and curbside service. She’s in no hurry to switch back to the dine-in model. Besides, the take-out business has been better than she anticipated.
“We don’t want to rush our reopening. We can’t,” she said.
Cardenas said after the closure, she lost staff to other jobs, and some don’t feel safe returning to work given that COVID-19 is still a threat.
She went from a staff of 211 to 38.
She wants to ensure everything from protective equipment to a new table layout is in place before she reopens. She also doesn’t want to sacrifice the feel of the restaurant and the dining experience.
That’s why she won’t reopen tables until she’s ready.
“We are a full-service restaurant. We pride ourselves on serving good food at our table,” she said.
In Sugar House , Kimi Eklund, owner of Kimi’s Chop and Oyster House, has been fully closed and plans to reopen on May 8. She plans to do a combination of take-out and dine-in.
Eklund’s restaurant is a large space, so she will keep all her tables, but only seat customers at some tables to ensure social distancing, per the new rules. She decided not to remove tables so the restaurant doesn’t feel empty.
Servers and all other staff will wear gloves and customized masks that are decorative, so they don’t feel like medical masks. She will have sanitizer stations around the restaurant and cleaning will be constant.
Despite all this, she is putting a lot of thought into her layout and cleaning, because she does not want the fine dining experience to be lost.
Her number one concern is that customers walk in feeling like their health won’t be compromised by entering her restaurant. It’s the only way customers will come back, she told 2News.
“It’s going to feel different, but they need to feel safe,” she said.
Eklund, like Cardenas, knows customers won’t flock back at once. She has secured emergency loans in recent days, and that gives her confidence that she can overcome all the new challenges in reopening her restaurant of five years.
“We just have to be positive and optimistic,” she said.
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April 29, 2020 at 07:20AM
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Though restaurants can reopen, many say it's easier said than done - KJZZ
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