inside dining room for petite leon
UPDATE: Statement from Hospitality Minnesota added below 3:30pm 11/09.
The rumor mill was busy this weekend as The Pandy took back its rightful spot as the big story. Case counts are through the roof and people are worried.
I got multiple texts from restaurant owners this weekend, asking me if I'd heard anything about coming restrictions. Most of them have been watching numbers and feeling the dread as we go into the cold and flu season and as good patio weather evaporates driving people indoors.
Today, at a presser about newly launched saliva testing centers, Gov. Walz hinted that more restrictions were coming on Tuesday. According to the Strib:
The governor said he would be speaking with lawmakers about his plans and would be unveiling at least some of them on Tuesday. Walz said the 51-day stay-at-home order in the spring was an effective but “blunt instrument” that he wants to avoid, but that targeted restrictions or shutdowns might be needed in places where young adults in particular are gathering and spreading the virus.
“It makes sense to us now to target those much more surgically, much more aggressively, than a statewide stay-at-home order,” Walz said, “because at this point in time, we’ve learned we can do retail, we can do education, some of it in person, if we’re able to test, contain and contact trace those folks to get [their infections] isolated.”
Walz also noted that we might be able to extrapolate where the 18-34 year olds are gathering and that would obviously be a target for restriction. Hello.
So now the gaming begins, right? The idea that more capacity restrictions are ahead seems odd. If you ask restaurants to go down to 25% capacity, most will lose money by staying open. And more than one restaurant owner agreed, it's not about occupancy: the virus is here and the community spread makes it nearly impossible to control regardless of occupancy restrictions. So is it a closure again? Will there be curfews like in other cities where bars have to shut before 10pm?
Many servers have already lost their jobs, again, due to patio closures. Some restaurants, like Alma, had planned ahead to hunker down this winter by moving to takeout only, and opening only on weekends. But many, many more have invested in spendy air filters and igloos for extending patio life. But there was an emphasis in Walz remarks about spending more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of each other which makes me think those igloos are not gonna cut it for more than 2 people. Probably not a great return on investment. And what about the limited run dinners planned for Meritage? Or the sold out dinner at Petite Leon in December? Those places were planning on very safe measures and small capacity dining to bring them a needed boost to keep going. And yet, I think there isn't a restaurant out there that wouldn't want this to just be over.
Last night, a certain pizza cook came home from his job and told me that Grocer's Table was closing for the next few days. They realized they need a new game plan for how they're functioning during this rise in cases. Likewise, Republic posted that they'd be halting indoor service of Yia Vang's Union Hmong Kitchen food while they figured out what to do (UHK is still doing takeout). Tim Niver just tweeted that Mucci's would close dining room service (which they had just launched) and focus on creative takeout pop-ups.
There is nothing simple about this. The two times we have had to be quarantined in my house has more to do with a teenager at school than the restaurant life we both lead (we remain vigilant and negative). I think after tomorrow, the rest of his senior year will be full-time distance learning (no more hybrid high schools and no more sports), and restaurants and bars will be shut down for indoor service at least through the holidays. There has been much talk about Thanksgiving as a super-spreader event. There was also a lot of good talk about tech and tracing, but I'm not confident that it will keep restos open.
Of course none of this would be half as terrifying if the former administration had seen the HEROES Act through, but here we are. Waiting on Tuesday.
UPDATE: Hospitality Minnesota, the lobbying arm of the local restaurant industry, released the following statement from President & CEO Liz Rammer. It makes a great point about how dangerous un-regulated home gatherings have become and shutting down restaurants might drive up those numbers: “The state has repeatedly told us they do not intend to shut down restaurants and bars, and we have not been told any different today. We would hope that any targeted restrictions being contemplated would take into account that restaurants and bars are affiliated with only 2% of the cases, and not unfairly single out these businesses. Closing down these businesses would only serve to push more people to home gatherings where the data shows increased case spread.”
