Winter patio dining? Modesto, Stanislaus restaurants prepare for long COVID-19 season
Stanislaus County restaurants are going through a horrifying “Groundhog Day” of a year.
Opened inside at the start of the year, closed inside in March, opened inside in May, closed inside in July, opened inside in October and now closed inside once more in November. I don’t know about you, but I sense a pattern.
As Stanislaus County moved back this week into the most-restrictive purple tier because of the scope of its continued COVID-19 outbreaks, eateries had to stop serving in their indoor dining rooms starting Tuesday at noon. With a long, cold and possibly flu-enhanced winter season ahead, it’s unclear when they might be able to reopen to the warmth of inside dining again.
The unprecedented pandemic year has brought unprecedented changes for restaurants. For many owners who have been watching the number of cases climb and news about possible shutdowns, the closure was expected. Last month, many businesses had to decide whether they’d plan ahead for a winter of outdoor dining or not.
For establishments like Modesto’s El Cazador Mexican Restaurant on Coffee Road, it was an easy one to make.
“We saw it coming,” said restaurant manager Franny Solis, whose mother owns the business. “We actually prepared ahead of time and went ahead and bought heaters and other good stuff to accommodate guests outside.”
Some restaurants already invested in outdoor heaters
While the restaurant has offered outside dining on a makeshift patio in their parking lot since the spring, this fall they got serious about reinforcing and upgrading their deck. In mid-October they started buying more heaters, both propane and electrical varieties. And then on Halloween they closed the restaurant to install permanent cover for their patio, making it more weatherproof.
The restaurant has about 17 tables outside, and almost as many heaters available. They have capacity for about 70 on the patio, about the same as their normal inside capacity.
They hope the investment in the heaters, which run from $200 to $300 each, will pay off. Solis also said she’s glad they bought theirs early. As winter begins to descend, some restaurants are now running into shortages on heaters and long wait times with limited supplies. Solis said a friend who also owns a restaurant down the street was told they more propane heaters would not be available until January.
Still, operating through the cold winter months and rainy season will prove challenging regardless. Even with their deck covering, Solis said windy or rainy days will make certainly patio seating less appealing. The state’s COVID-19 safety guidelines stipulate that any outdoor shelters created for dining must only have one wall and one roof. The city of Modesto’s OpenAir Temporary Outdoor Dining Initiative also states that tents “must not have closed walls in place while open to the public, and all sides should be open for air flow.”
So, no, those fully enclosed tents and other structures that essentially bring the inside outside are not up to code and could be reported as violations.
Social media has helped eateries reach customers
Another Modesto business transitioning back to outdoor dining is The Post Restaurant & Bar in northwest Modesto. They have some outdoor heaters, and are looking into reinforcing their sun and wind shade structures. They’re even serving their food on warmed plates outside.
Brooke Santostefano, the property’s office manager, said they’ve been lucky so far because of their outdoor seating areas. The Stoddard Road location, which has been home the restaurants for about 20 years and to The Post for the last seven years, has a front patio seating area that can fit about 20 people and spacious patio in the back that can fit another 80 people.
That’s still smaller than their 250 indoor capacity, but they said the influx of people during the warm spring and summer months bolstered their business. Now that it’s getting colder they expect and hope they’ll see an uptick in their to-go business.
The restaurant also has been relying on social media to attract customers, posting frequently on local Facebook groups that promote area food providers.
“We’ve always been pretty big on our social media, and right now that’s been our main marketing process,” Santostefano said. “We’re hopeful we’ll get through this winter, we’re hopeful.”
Big patios won’t work for everyone in winter
But investing in outdoor dining during the cold months doesn’t make sense for all restaurants. Mike Nelson, owner of Smoky’s Nieghborhood Grill in north-central Modesto, closed his dining room for the third time Tuesday. But he won’t be pivoting to patio dining. He said for small places like his without liquor licenses, it doesn’t make sense to invest in large outdoor operations. He said the cost to lease tents and heaters each month would almost be as much as his $4,300 monthly rent for the space itself.
So instead they’ll rely on takeout and delivery, as they have with the other indoor closures. Still, everything restaurant businesses have done this year has been complicated by coronavirus. The roller-coaster of openings and closings has made once simple decisions much harder. How many people to staff? How much food to order? How long will deliveries take?
Nelson said each closure has meant he’s had to lay off staff. He’s currently operating with five people. He expects those uncertainties to only grow over the winter, as the summer boom of outside dining slows for many businesses. Indeed it could indeed be a bleak winter for many restaurants, who have already endured eight months of constant upheaval.
“There are so many of my friends in restaurants who have told me if this goes on past December they’re going to close,” said Nelson, a more than 30-year veteran of the local restaurant business. “That is no joke. That’s real. You’re going to see a lot of empty spaces.”
Still, Nelson feels confident Smoky’s can ride it out thanks to careful savings and investments. But seeing other businesses, from major retailers like Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods, still allow shoppers inside has been frustrating. He said it would help if the restrictions were applied evenly across industries. And if those in violation were dealt with quickly.
“I think 90 percent of businesses and people want to do the right thing,” he said. “I just want a level playing field and I think we should all follow the rules so we can be done with this thing. Get it done, so we can open back up and put our kids back in school. We will get through this, we’re resilient people.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
