It’s no secret that restaurants in Savannah have been hit hard by the pandemic. Recently, The Chromatic Dragon announced its closure. The reason? No staff.
According to their statement in announcing their closing, staff members were spread out across the country due to the shutdown that started in March. The entire country was, for the most part shut down. Students, in Savannah and elsewhere? They returned home. Those restaurants that relied on students to fill their labor needs all of a sudden had a much smaller labor pool to draw from. The result now that some have reopened? Most restaurants are coping with smaller staff, occasional shutdowns, and sometimes irritated customers.
Just this week, Savannah’s Crystal Beer Parlor made headlines after turning away a customer who refused to wear a mask. Crystal Beer’s ownership and management have openly supported the staff’s refusal to serve that person. Any restaurant owner will tell you it is very hard to take that stance during a time when business is desperately needed, but they also have to make tough calls in order to keep their staff and customers safe.
Downtown Savannah’s The Fat Radish is another local restaurant struggling to connect all of the dots over the last five months. After the shutdown, they waited an extra three weeks to reopen in order to take all the necessary safety precautions. But they also know that no matter what safety precautions you take though, there’s always the chance of someone testing positive for COVID-19.
“When we reopened, we had quite a few staff members who didn’t feel comfortable coming back to work yet,” said Natalie Freihon, one of The Fat Radish partners.
“We understood that and supported that.”
Even after reducing capacity to 50 percent and requiring employees and diners to wear masks, one employee tested positive forcing the restaurant to close for a week. Freihon told me it was harder to get staff to return after that.
“We had only two staff members that were willing to work, and we were trying to hire, and we just could not hire. We were posting everywhere, asking friends, sending emails out, and could not hire even one staff member at all.”
“This went on for a couple of weeks. Some of our staff decided to come back, and we could barely operate at that time. We had to go from allowing walk-ins to reservation-only. Our manager was serving tables, our head bartender was working, and we had two people in the kitchen, one of whom is our executive chef and partner. We had to go super, super light, and obviously not even generating enough money to operate because we couldn’t find anyone to come to work no matter how safe the situation seemed.”
That’s just one example of a scenario that is repeating itself throughout Savannah and across America right now.
Servers at other bars and restaurants are also being forced to make hard choices when it comes to work and safety. In an industry filled with part time labor that has very little if any health insurance coverage. Where is the motivation to risk exposure? It’s a very tough call.
Shannon Proulx is a bartender at The Rail Pub. Even though management and employees followed CDC guidelines, and Proulx was vigilant about wearing a mask and washing her hands, she still contracted COVID-19.
“You can take all the precautions in the world, but when you’re interacting with hundreds of people in a weekend or a week, I knew somebody would get it.”
She’s back at work now after quarantining for several weeks and testing negative, but catching it has left her on edge. Proulx said most of her customers wear masks and stay distanced, but she does occasionally have to remind some.
“I don’t want to be a jerk or a Debbie Downer because I also work for tips, and when you’re a Debbie Downer people don’t want to tip you.”
Magen Peiglebeck is a full-time teacher for Chatham County and a part-time server at Bella’s Italian Café in Habersham Village. She said when the restaurant reopened she had to make a choice between making extra money or keeping her mother, who is in her early 70s, safe. She chose to wait until her mother went to Rhode Island. Even after her mother left, Peiglebeck still wasn’t sure if she should wait tables again.
“The school board made the decision to stay at home virtually and that was going to lead to my decision going back. If we were going back in the classroom, then maybe I should be able to go back and work in a restaurant.”
Back at The Fat Radish, they were finally able to hire new staff thanks to friends at other local restaurants that hadn’t reopened. Freihon said this is the most they’ve ever struggled. Now it isn’t a matter of staff, it’s a matter of business.
“I think we’re doing about 24 percent of the revenue we were doing last year.”
Freihon has noticed that tourism is down, which is understandable. The restaurant has switched gears by offering pre-packaged meals and picnics available for pickup.
“We’re not very busy. We’re only open four nights a week. We used to be open seven nights a week and lunch and brunch.”
Despite all the changes in safety precautions and concerns, the Savannah restaurant workers I’ve spoken with are grateful for the people who make the choice to dine and drink locally.
“You do see people who do take it seriously, and they thank you for being open. Those are the kind of people I enjoy serving,” said Proulx.
