This Fresno restaurant is taking reservations. Here’s what reopening could look like
Popular Fresno restaurant Pismo’s Coastal Grill is taking reservations and pushing ahead with plans to open May 7.
Owner Dave Fansler released another video on Facebook over the weekend detailing what dining will look like when the restaurant opens. The restaurant made waves in mid-April when the restaurateur was among the first to announce plans to reopen.
So when will restaurants be allowed to open for dine-in customers?
That’s still up in the air.
Fansler chose May 7 because it is the day after the City of Fresno’s shelter-in-place order is set to expire. But that order has already been extended once and could be again.
The city’s Recovery Advisory Committee is looking at that situation and had nothing new to share Tuesday, according to city spokesman Mark Standriff.
But the decision about when restaurants can start reopening to dine-in customers isn’t up to the city, he said.
“Regardless of what our shelter-in-place orders may say … the governor is still going to control whether or not restaurants can do dine-in services,” Standriff said. “Even if our order were to expire, the governor’s emergency order would still be in place and restaurants would still have to abide by it.”
A growing number of voices are calling for the reopening of Fresno businesses, including Fresno City Councilmembers Mike Karbassi and Garry Bredefeld, both of whom held news conferences this week to address the topic.
The numbers
On Monday, Fresno County reported 40 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, including cases confirmed over the weekend.
The number of active cases from those confirmed rose to 320, with 171 people recovered, the county reported.
Seven have died and 91 have been hospitalized. The majority of all people infected in Fresno County have been between ages 18 to 49.
Nationwide, 50,587 people have died from the virus and 985,064 have tested positive.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he won’t consider loosening stay-at-home orders until until hospitalizations, particularly in intensive care units, “flatten and start to decline” for at least two weeks.
Fresno County’s leading health official, interim health director Dr. Rais Vohra, said Monday that the Fresno area needs more testing to know whether the coronavirus curve is flattening to a safer level.
He said he understands the growing impatience.
“It’s not a simple question of ‘when.’ It’s really the larger, harder question of ‘how,’” Vohra said. “I think that’s going to be a different answer for every sector.”
State officials have outlined six ways in which the state and its regions can reopen safely.
The state measures include more testing and isolation of infected persons, preventing vulnerable populations from getting sick, the ability of hospitals to meet a surge of patients, and ways that institutions can implement physical distancing when needed in the future.
Pismo’s plan
“I have to have a plan,” said Fansler, a longtime Fresno restaurateur who founded Tahoe Joe’s and today also owns Westwoods BBQ & Spice Co. and Yosemite Ranch.
Pismo’s is already taking reservations – it won’t be seating walk-ins – and is starting to book up, Fansler said. It is allowing reservations for five tables for every 15-minute arrival window.
Customers will be greeted outside so the entryway doesn’t get jammed up.
Pismo’s will use about 20 of its 52 tables, with 10 minutes between seatings so tables and chairs can be disinfected, he said. His employees demonstrated how customers would be seated in the Facebook video.
An employee will be dedicated to cleaning each shift, including pens, guest check holders, and heavily touched areas like door handles.
Servers will wear clear plastic face shields – not masks – though cooks will wear fabric masks. Menus and condiments will be thrown away after each seating.
The bar will be closed, though cocktails will be served at tables.
Customers will be texted protocols they are expected to follow, though Fansler said the restaurant will not be checking customers’ temperatures at the door.
“Social distancing is not just a word, it’s a must,” he said. “I want people to respect that. I don’t want to see people shaking hands and approaching other people because they haven’t seen them there in a long time. This is a privilege to be able to get started again and they have to treat it as such.”
