Fresno County restaurants can reopen for more indoor dining. Why some aren’t celebrating
Indoor dining at restaurants will officially be allowed at 25% as Fresno County moved into the red tier of coronavirus business restrictions Tuesday.
It’s welcome news for restaurants – but still not a solution to the problems that have dogged the industry since COVID-19 first hit the area last year.
Challenges remain — and it’s hard for restaurants to make money seating just 25% of tables. Plus, there are increased expenses with adding more tables, like hiring back servers to wait on those tables. Those workers are also getting increasingly hard to find, several restaurant owners said.
Of course, many restaurants in Fresno have been seating people indoors for a while. With the City of Fresno issuing barely any fines this year to businesses who violated the state’s rules, many – if not most – restaurants have been seating diners inside in Fresno and Clovis.
Even restaurateurs who for months have played by the rules and resisted opening their dining rooms started doing so in recent days and weeks. They cite competition from other restaurants already seating indoors, and said they either had a choice to reopen for indoor dining or go out of business.
Still, the shift to the new tier is good news, said Chuck Van Fleet, owner of Vino Grille & Spirits and president of the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
“This means a lot to all the restaurants that are out there because we can finally open up at 25% inside,” he said. “It’s huge for us because it’s right before the Easter weekend.”
It’s a relief even for restaurants that have been open indoors, he said. In addition to local code enforcement visits, California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has the right to yank the liquor licenses of restaurants not following the rules.
“Whether you were seating inside or not, we now don’t have to worry about ABC coming in and giving a warning or taking our (liquor) license,” he said.
Restaurants playing by the rules
The new tier will be a big change for the few restaurants that have been following the state’s COVID-19 guidelines and doing only takeout or outdoor dining. They include Noodle Q Home Style Fresh Noodles and Sushi, Nami Japanese Cuisine, and breakfast and lunch spot Benaddiction.
“Yes, we’ve been waiting for a long time,” said Yaohan Murong, owner of Nami, at Fresno Street and Friant Road.
Their dining room (including the conveyer belt that took sushi past customers tables) has been closed and business has been significantly down because of it, she said.
They are planning to open for indoor dining at 25% starting Thursday evening.
Still, seating at 25% isn’t enough for restaurants to break even, Van Fleet said.
“Just because we’ll be full, does not mean we’re profitable,” he said.
Restaurants need to be seating diners at 50% capacity to break even, he said.
“It’s good news that we’re progressing … but the 25% is going to be difficult,” said James Caples, owner of Benaddiction at Bullard and Marks avenues.
The restaurant has kept its small indoor dining room closed all this time. The hood over the grill in the kitchen pulls air from the dining area into it, meaning COVID-19 could potentially be spread through the air and infect more people, he said.
But with the change to the new tier, Benaddiction will open up indoor dining and seat up to eight people.
More tables open indoors means he needs to hire back more workers.
“The amount of sales we can get, it’s difficult to pay for the extra labor that limited indoor dining needs,” he said.
Difficulty hiring workers
And despite the damage that COVID-19 has done to the economy, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find cooks, servers and dishwashers, several restaurant owners said.
Many cooks, for example, who were laid off last year have work at places like Target, Caples said.
“We took their jobs away because we all shut down significantly,” he said. “Now that we need them back, they’ve found other jobs that aren’t as stressful, that aren’t as physical, that pay the same amount.”
There could be other reasons, too.
Workers are getting stimulus checks and unemployment benefits, noted Van Fleet. Workers are getting an extra $300 a week in federal money on top of their normal unemployment checks from California. Some people are working side gigs that don’t affect their unemployment, he noted.
Even Trelio in Clovis is having problems hiring workers, said owner Chris Shackelford.
“I’ve had advertisements for wait staff, for cooks, for two or three months and I’m getting no response,” he said.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 2:46 PM.
