To comply or not comply? How Modesto restaurants vary in handling of COVID shutdown
When Cheng Her and his business partner, Nicholas Vang, bought Modesto Sukiyaki almost a year ago, they expected challenges because they were new to the restaurant industry. But they did not expect a pandemic that has been a public health and economic disaster.
Her said business at their restaurant in the Frontier Town Shopping Center is down 60%. He and Vang have laid off their five employees and are relying on family members to help them run the restaurant.
The two business partners have followed all the pandemic restrictions since the initial stay-at-home order in March, and that includes the latest from early December that limits San Joaquin Valley restaurants to takeout service.
But a sample of other restaurants along the busy Standiford Avenue corridor shows some were not following the rules by serving customers indoors or outdoors in patios and tents.
The Bee saw this recently at Javi’s Fine Mexican Food Restaurant (indoor dining), My Garden Cafe (indoor dining) Marcella’s (outdoor dining) and Papapavlo’s Bistro (outdoor dining). The Sizzler on Dale Road had diners eating at three booths Tuesday around lunchtime, and the Velvet Grill & Creamery restaurants on McHenry Avenue and Dale Road were busy Tuesday serving diners indoors.
The owner of the two Velvet Grills paid Modesto $10,000 in October for serving diners indoors over the summer when it was not allowed and signed a settlement agreement saying it would follow the public health restrictions. Modesto also reached a $1,000 settlement in October with Tru-Fitness for operating indoors in violation of the restrictions.
For context, a drive along other major thoroughfares in Modesto and other Stanislaus County cities or through a local shopping center will show other restaurants serving customers indoors, gyms and yoga studios holding classes indoors, and big-box retailers and stores packed with customers, all in violation of the current restrictions.
The owners and staff at the restaurants The Bee observed not following the restrictions declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment, but BMW Management, the Sizzler’s franchisee, issued a statement saying the Dale Road restaurant is “committed to the safety and health of our valued staff and guests.”
Plexiglass installed in restaurant booths
A customer at one of the restaurants said these and other businesses have been put in difficult circumstances, and the pandemic restrictions have resulted in deep economic pain.
“I’m here to support small business,” said a man who was about to enter My Garden Cafe for lunch Thursday with his son and another family member. The man would identify himself only by his first name, Chris.
Chris said while the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, are real, the response to the pandemic has been overblown. For instance, Chris said because of his age and good health, if he were to get sick, he could get very ill but would not die.
But Chris said while he and his family are healthy, they still take precautions. He said My Garden Cafe is doing its part, too, to keep its staff and patrons safe. For instance, the restaurant has installed plexiglass at its booths and employees wear masks.
Other restaurants The Bee visited have also taken precautions. The Sizzler, for example, has closed its salad bar and some of its booths to increase the distance among diners.
BMW Management also said in its statement that it is “strictly adhering to the standards issued by the CDC (federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) which include sanitation stations, frequent hand washing and daily employee health screenings, wearing of personal protective equipment including masks, gloves and hand sanitizers, and maintaining social distancing throughout our facility.”
“We stand in agreement with the Stanislaus County Sheriff, Jeff Dirkse,” the statement continued, “whose Facebook statement on December 5 encourages making wise choices as free Americans to protect our community. We believe that our decision to remain in business is based in large part on sustaining the livelihood of our staff and meeting the needs of the community by offering safe meal consumption alternatives.”
Dirkse also wrote in that Facebook post that as the county’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise and the hospitals fill up, “we all need to do the right thing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that we have the ICU capacity to treat not only the virus but all of the other medical emergencies that have not stopped. This is critical.”
Restaurants and other businesses not following the pandemic restrictions comes as Stanislaus County had the third highest coronavirus deaths per capita in California last week, according to a statewide tracking system. The county has recorded more than 509 deaths from the pandemic. And with hundreds of new cases reported every day, local hospitals are packed with coronavirus patients.
But local government has focused on education to gain compliance.
Sgt. Luke Schwartz said the Sheriff’s Department is “taking the approach that education is the best policy” when it comes to the public health order. The department is not actively pursuing enforcement of the order, which Schwartz said is better handled by other agencies, like city staff. “We’re not going to make criminals of people who defy a public health order,” he said.
Modesto tries education first
City spokesman Thomas Reeves said Modesto’s approach to enforcement is complaint-based, not proactive. The city receives complaints about Modesto businesses from the county, and then contacts the restaurant and business to investigate.
Violations of health orders can be reported to the Stanislaus County Office of Emergency Services by calling 209-558-7535 or emailing covid-19info@schsa.org.
Modesto’s first few contacts are education-focused, Reeves said. That means updating businesses on the particulars of the regulations and reminding them the orders pertain to their type of establishment.
If those efforts don’t succeed, Reeves added, the city issues a cease-and-desist order, which can be followed by fines, and eventually a public hearing and an agreement that states the business will comply with the state directives.
Tru-Fitness and the Velvet Grill are the only businesses Modesto has fined, but Reeves said Modesto is aware that the Velvet Grill is not following the current restrictions and “our attorneys are working on our next steps.”
Since the new stay-at-home order was enacted, Modesto has received 28 complaints, Reeves said, of which two were unfounded, 12 were brought into compliance and 14 remain unresolved.
He said Modesto takes a reactive approach to enforcement for a few reasons: First, he said the education-forward approach has worked, bringing 99% of businesses into compliance. Reeves added that taking a proactive stance by going out into the community to identify noncompliant businesses isn’t feasible because the city has only a handful of staff qualified to check for compliance.
He also said spot checks could result in targeting one area of the city, and comparative leniency for others. “Those businesses that we’re targeting could come back and say, ‘Well, you’re discriminating against us, what about the rest of the businesses that are open?’” Reeves said.
Reeves said Modesto is receiving fewer complaints, compared to earlier iterations of restrictions. He suspects “the reality may be that there are so many businesses that are open who shouldn’t be that people are just not complaining anymore, or because of how long this has been (going on), and how many orders have come out and how tired people are.”
Stanislaus County spokeswoman Amy Carroll said the county also is taking an education-based approach.
“We are constantly doing outreach via our website, social media channels, radio and through regular communication through our EOC (Emergency Operations Center) with city leaders, elected officials, hospital administrators, education officials and other stakeholder groups,” she said.
Not enough help to do the right thing
Craig Wright, who was picking up a takeout lunch for himself and his daughter Tuesday at Modesto Sukiyaki, said restaurants need to follow the public health orders. Wright and his daughter ate lunch at a card table they set up in the shopping center parking lot while practicing other safety protocols.
“I think it’s irresponsible,” he said about restaurants not following the rules. “But I don’t think our government has given people a reason not to cheat.”
Wright, who is pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Turlock, said the federal government has not provided restaurants and other small businesses with enough financial support to follow the restrictions to bring the pandemic under control.
The government could help restaurants out considerably, with more stimulus help and targeted relief, said Jeff Michael, executive director of Center for Business and Policy Research at Stockton’s University of the Pacific. He said more federal COVID-19 relief funding is essential, but it has to be deployed wisely.
“To be more helpful to restaurants trying to survive the winter, it needs to be more flexible than in the past. Allow greater support of nonpayroll costs, less rigid timing restrictions. To maximize support to those who need it the most, it should be targeted to businesses that have actually experienced a substantial decline in sales. This should have been done months ago,” Michael said in an email.
Wright agreed that more federal stimulus is needed. “I’m conservative economically,” he said. “But if there was ever a time for government to start writing big checks, it’s now.”
Congress passed the roughly $2 trillion CARES Act in March, which provided financial help for families, the unemployed, businesses and others. It is now working on trying to pass a $900 billion stimulus bill that would provide enhanced unemployment benefits, food assistance, help for renters, loans for small businesses, as well as money for schools and hospitals.
Some CARES Act money has gone directly to restaurants in the region, primarily through the federal government’s massive Paycheck Protection Program, which had a troubled rollout and ran out of its first round of funding quickly. Stanislaus County and cities like Modesto and Turlock have also given out grants up to $10,000 to $25,000 to area businesses from their allotment of federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Gift card app to help restaurants
One of the more high-profile programs aimed at helping restaurants is the RAD Card, a gift card app that can be loaded with cash while giving its users a matching grant up to $100. The match comes from $2 million in CARES Act funds from the county.
The Downtown Modesto Partnership, which is behind the RAD Card and its expansion to every city in the county, has also launched some other, smaller programs to help local restaurants. They include up to $1,000 in reimbursement in winterization costs for downtown restaurants and a blanket sales campaign, with part of the proceeds going to restaurants who sell them.
But in the end, even those efforts were not enough to keep the doors open at some restaurants. Modesto’s Fuddruckers, Ceres’ Pastas Pronto and Escalon’s The Tri-Tipery have closed during the pandemic, among others.
Now with the county back in the stay-at-home order, some restaurants have chosen to close their doors through the holidays with hopes of coming back rested and stronger in January. Downtown dining places like Tresetti’s, Fuzio and Bauer’s Downtown Gastropub will close this week until at least the new year.
“It’s been tough for us,” said Her, the Modesto Sukiyaki owner, about trying to survive in the pandemic while observing the restrictions. He said they follow the restrictions because “we basically want everyone to stay safe, plus we have an alcohol license, and we don’t want to lose it and other licenses we have. Those are the two major things.”
Her moved here from Stockton when he bought Modesto Sukiyaki, which he said has been in business since the 1990s. He said he was surprised to learn about the depth of Modesto residents’ loyalty and support of the city’s small businesses. “I love Modesto,” he said.
Her said it doesn’t matter to him whether other restaurants follow or don’t follow the public health orders. “I don’t really care about whether it’s fair or not,” he said. “Everyone is trying to survive. They are doing what they have to do to stay open and not shut down. I pray for them to be safe and to be cautious.”
This story was produced with financial support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
To help fund The Bee’s economic development and children’s health reporters with Report for America, go to https://bit.ly/ModestoBeeRFA
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
