How wealthy would you be if you had a dollar for every time someone used the phrase “strange times” on you? I know I’d be well on my way. Most of us would be.
Another week has gone by during Covid-19 Quarantine 2020. The week was made a little more interesting by the fact that South Carolina allowed restaurants to have guests eat in their dining rooms for the first time in many weeks. Of course, that decision came after the State of Georgia made a similar proclamation. The message was clear. “Let’s get back to work!” but it’s pretty obvious that message is falling on many deaf ears.
Privately, there are a ton of restaurant owners who aren’t too happy about where we are right now.
It’s easy to get caught up in the wave of ‘back to normal around town” right now. Traffic on Victory Drive this week on approach to the Truman Parkway made me consider colorful language again. The mob scene at Sam’s Club on Montgomery Cross Road made me wonder if it was the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone was there. I just wanted some peanut butter and 3 pounds of flank steak. They were out of both.
Strange times.
Back on the food scene, restaurants are fighting a constant battle right now between what to do and how to proceed or whether or not they should be doing anything at all considering the hand they are being asked to play.
“This is f****d up.” Is how one Savannah restaurant owner put it. “Restaurants don’t work unless they are at 100%.” he added. His restaurant is actually open for take-out.
If you are wondering why I didn’t name the person behind that quote, I had a little trouble finding someone to go on the record for this story with me. Sure, they’ll all talk my ear off about their issues and challenges, but airing some dirt wasn’t something they were comfortable with. Yes, more than one.
The reason is pretty simple. Whether you agree or not with the decision to ‘re-open’ to whatever extent we are being allowed to operate, the issue is politically charged and incredibly dividing. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has taken a beating nationally for his decision to re-open his state despite Georgia’s infection rate not showing decline for 14 days. That rule was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control as a mandate for re-opening at the state level.
Now, everyone is ignoring it, putting on a bathing suit and jumping into the pool. Ready or not, here we come.
Clearly, not everyone.
Have you noticed the number of restaurants we haven’t heard a peep from during all of this? Sure, some announced they’d not be re-opening just because the Governor said so, but then they went back to waiting this out.
“We just can’t do it.” says Jeffery Downey, co-owner of Circa 1875 and La Scala in downtown Savannah. “First of all, we can’t do anything at 25% capacity.”
Another restaurant owner says opening a small restaurant at 25% is a money losing proposition. Restaurant profit margins are microscopic to begin with. Now they are being asked to operate at a quarter of their capacity? They can’t do it.
“I can’t even pay my electric bill with that type of income coming in.” Downey says.
“I know people are clamoring. I know people want to go out to eat and go to the bar and so on, but right now it’s just not prudent. We want to see where the spread of the virus is later and plan to re-evaluate on the 15th.” he said.
“We meet every week to talk about whether or not we will open next week.” says Mike Vaudrin, Owner of Downtown Savannah’s Ordinary Pub and Broughton Common. “I’m just not sure what we are going to do yet.”
Some restaurants like Tybee Island’s Breakfast Club has re-opened for take out. Same goes for J. Thomas Kitchen on Whitemarsh Island. Clearly there is preparation there for a ramp up to something more substantial down the road.
For others, the risk is just too great.
Atlanta’s Little Rey, a Tex Mex restaurant owned by Celebrity Chef and Entrepreneur Ford Fry announced this week that they were forced to close their restaurant again after an employee tested positive for Covid-19. Standard procedure calls for everyone who was in contact with that person to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Remember all of the things discussed in that regard in late March/early April? Yeah, that. Nothing has changed. No matter how badly you want that margarita, going out in a crowd continues to put you at risk of exposure.
“I could not live with having one of my staffers, who work so hard for me and my business, become sick.” is how Seni Alabi Isama, owner of Statesboro’s Smoque Pit BBQ put it. “My dining room is closed until further notice. But we can do take out.”
“I cannot put our health, our employees health and our customers health at risk for profit.” Downey says.
Speaking of those employees, many of them have concerns as well. So much has been reported on the number of unemployment claims in this country the last few weeks. Now some of those food and beverage employees are collecting a hefty sum. In some cases more than they made in a kitchen or dining room.
Do you see them rushing back to work when your reward could be a potentially fatal infection? Neither do I.
Before you go rattling off an email to me referring to how low the mortality rate is for Covid-19, I do understand that a very low number of people die from this. Most people (upwards of 80% in many reports) ride it out and recover quietly at home. You gotta like those odds, unless of course you transmit to someone you love who finds themselves in the 20% category.
Keep in mind, you can only die once.
The point is that while some people may be overjoyed at the amount of glee we are witnessing in Whoville right now, there is still a lot of pain, suffering and hand wringing going on. We should all be proceeding with caution and enjoying what we can responsibly.
“I made $8,000 last month” One owner told me. Same restaurant where $3,000 lunches were the norm.
Strange times, indeed.
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