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HOW I SAVED THE
RESTAURANT INDUSTRY
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I was looking for a thrill. I thought about climbing the
Himalayas, or perhaps kayaking down a Class Five raging river, but in the
end I decided to eat indoors in a San Francisco restaurant.
Just call me a risk taker.
"Today's the day," I said to my wife one morning last
week. "San Francisco is allowing inside dining for the first time since
March, and I'm taking the plunge. Are you worried?"
She looked up from the morning paper. "Not
particularly," she replied. "At least you're not going to a
fundraiser with the President."
"I'm brave, not clueless," I said. "The Health
Department of San Francisco has deemed indoor dining safe, and it's my
responsibility to support the struggling restaurant industry."
She wasn't impressed. "Would the fact that you own a
couple of restaurants have anything to do with this brave decision of
yours?"
Maybe. And when I told her that I was going to eat indoors at
my own restaurant, Cioppino's, at Fisherman's Wharf in San
Francisco....well....let's just say it took a little of my bravado off the
table.
Nevertheless, I soldiered on. I recruited a good friend of mine
who is one of those people who has very little concern about catching
COVID-19, and invited him to join me for this momentous occasion.
As everyone knows, it's been a tough grind for restaurants
throughout the world, and Cioppino's was certainly no exception. We closed
on March 16th, and re-opened for takeout only on May 23rd. It didn't go
well, but when San Francisco allowed outdoor dining beginning June 12th, we
were all in.
We got permits to take over parking spots, sidewalks, and our
next door neighbor's frontage (they're one of our seafood suppliers). Along
with our regular patio dining, we had over 80 seats outside, the tables all
socially distanced.
Sounds good, except for the notorious San Francisco summer
weather. There were days when a server would deliver a lovely Caesar salad
to the table, and it would blow off the plate. That's not good.
But we persevered, mainly because we were one of the few
restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf that were open. Considering the lack of
tourists and the scarcity of pedestrians in general, that turned out to be a
good thing, at least for us.
It also would have helped if we were a barbecue joint instead of
seafood, because when the fires hit in August we could have used the smoke
as a marketing tool. Outdoor dining with an air quality index of 175 is not
a lot of fun for patrons or servers.
Now we finally have indoor dining again, and I wanted to be one
of the first to prove that it was safe. I met my friend at the entrance to
Cioppino's, and we proudly marched in. Or tried to.
A few questions had to be answered first, per Health Department
protocol. Once we confirmed to our host that we hadn't been diagnosed with
COVID-19 in the last 10 days, or had current symptoms, or had close contact
with someone who had been diagnosed, we were allowed in.
There are five pages of checklists required by the San
Francisco Health Department that restaurants must adhere to, and dozens of
documents with other information and guidelines. To say it is extensive is
putting it mildly. Most are reasonable, some are not, but all are followed.
It's a different world.
The most prominent requirement, of course, is the limit of 25%
capacity. Cioppino's is a large restaurant, with 240 seats inside, meaning
we're now allowed 60 seats. it doesn't take an MBA candidate to calculate
how that will affect the bottom line.
We sat at a table next to an open window, and the nearest
diners seemed a football field away. I felt completely safe, and my salad
didn't even come close to blowing off my plate.
Baby steps. That's all we asked for, and we got it. We're going
in the right direction, and if we continue to wear masks and social
distance, we'll hopefully get to 50%, and then 75%, and then someday back to
normal.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to be a risk taker. I came home that
night and told my wife that I had done my part to save the restaurant
industry and would now turn my attention to other businesses that needed my
assistance, starting with airlines.
"You don't own any airlines," she replied. "I
don't think you're going anywhere."
Busted. I guess the airlines are on their own.
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