California restaurants can reopen, but owners are wary
California restaurants can reopen, but owners are wary
California is reopening. Kind of.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the statewide stay-at-home order, which means restaurants will soon be able to reopen, but in most of California, that will only be for outdoor seating.
It will vary from county to county, and Southern California remains hard hit by COVID-19 infections.
For restaurant owners, many of whom have had to close their businesses since November, the shift is welcome. But some are distrustful.
Ann Hsing owns Pasjoli, a French eatery in Santa Monica whose butter-poached lobster has earned rave reviews. She said she’s waiting to hear the specifics of the new guidelines. “I think that will be very telling into whether or not it will actually work for some of us to be open.”
The California Restaurant Association says 30% of restaurants in the state are expected to go out of business in this pandemic. Greg Morena is with the association. He spent Monday night and Tuesday rushing to prepare his restaurant — the Albright in Santa Monica (which claims world-famous clam chowder) — to reopen.
Among other things, he called his staff to find out: “First and foremost, who’s available? Some people have found other jobs. Some people have moved out of state.”
Morena said he hopes to reopen by early February. Not all restaurant owners are that excited. With Southern California still in the grip of COVID-19, many wonder how long the reopening will last. Lien Ta already lost one of her restaurants — Here’s Looking at You — to the pandemic. She still has another, All Day Baby, with its beloved biscuit sandwiches. When it comes to reopening outdoors, she said, “we’re all exhausted, and it’s difficult to make these kinds of decisions when we don’t even learn about them ahead of time.”
So for now, she’s going to put a few tables outside for self-service. She’s not getting her hopes up, just yet.
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