Whatcom restaurants are taking these different strategies with COVID dining restrictions
It’s been a few weeks since Whatcom restaurants were allowed to offer “Healthy Washington’s” Phase 2 indoor dining and the response is quite varied as owners try to determine customers’ comfort levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While many restaurants have figured out a way to offer indoor dining at 25% capacity, some have decided to stick with takeout/delivery while waiting for the number of cases to drop. Some are doubling-down with outdoor seating, or going with the open-air concept of opening windows/doors in the hopes that warmer weather is coming with the longer daylight hours.
This pandemic period has also been a time of reevaluating what a restaurant is and what’s the best way to serve customers. The downtown restaurant Simmering Tava is in the process of becoming more of a market/cafe hybrid format that is grab-and-go, said co-owner Rajat Damani. It is currently sticking with a to-go/delivery format for now. With older family members in the business, they want to wait until they are vaccinated before trying any dine-in services.
The market/cafe hybrid idea is allowing Simmering Tava to try out new options, including doing more special orders of seasonal/delicate recipes, Damani said.
“We have lowered our prices to retails store levels so you can grab a four-pack from us instead of stopping at another store,” Damani said.
For many restaurants, it’s been a period of doing even more remodeling on top of what was done the last time indoor dining was allowed in the summer and fall. That includes reconfiguring tables, adding height to the backs of booths and eliminating self-service areas.
“It’s a little tricky with dine-in since we can’t have all the napkins, condiments, water dispensers, etc. for self-service so when it’s busy it feels a little stressful on the staff,” said Anna Adams, co-owner of Old World Deli, in an email. She added that indoor dining business has been good along with takeout and delivery.
Chuckanut Brewery decided to stick with its outdoor-covered, heated patio for now but they did bring back table service, which has allowed them to start hiring again. It’s also allowing employees to interact with customers once again, something that’s been sorely missed, said co-owner Mari Kemper.
“Lots of our staff ended up moving away or moving to other types of jobs so we are now hiring new staff, too, in anticipation of the summer swell,” said Kemper in an email, adding that they were able to avoid laying off their brewers and are now pumping up beer production.
“So happy to report we are back to real silverware and serving dishes. Our back patio is really cozy, comfortable and safe-feeling so we are still at that point to keep both guests and staff healthy,” Kemper said.
How is delivery doing?
With a limited number of people able to dine inside restaurants, takeout and delivery sales have slowed down for some businesses. After seeing delivery requests spike during the February snowstorm, Damani said sales are down but overall doing OK.
Takeout sales have remained strong at Chuckanut Brewery, Kemper said, adding that they recently changed from delivering on their own to using Viking Foods and Door Dash so her employees can focus on the business.
Old World Deli is also seeing strong takeout/delivery sales, as people are choosing to order groceries and wine, an area that the deli has expanded during the pandemic.
What is the hiring situation?
It is unclear yet how many people are being hired for restaurant positions in Phase 2, but the number of people filing unemployment claims in the leisure/hospitality category is slowing, said Anneliese Vance-Sherman, a regional labor economist for the state. She also noted that the number of people continuing to collect unemployment has dropped in recent weeks, a sign that people are returning to work.
The leisure/hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit early on in the pandemic. In March 2020 Whatcom County had 10,700 people employed in the industry, but 36% of those jobs disappeared just a month later, falling to 6,800 people with those jobs. She expects jobs in this industry to bounce back by the end of summer.
“In short, I expect that we will see a relatively quick return to the 9,000 jobs threshold... as the warm temperatures draw us out of our homes,” Vance-Sherman said in an email.
