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There’s a lot more to worry about now as Jean Pierre Iuliano welcomes diners to his Cafe Mare restaurant in Santa Cruz — in one of the few Bay Area counties open for indoor dining.
He makes sure he’s there every day so nothing gets overlooked. Doorknobs, condiment containers, laminated menus, touchscreens for credit-card payments — all must be wiped with disinfectant.
Doors are propped open. Waiters wearing face masks circle generously spaced tables where forks and knives are tucked inside napkins to guard them from the invisible coronavirus that has been upending the restaurant industry and life as we knew for the last six months.
“You go around and spray and wipe everything you can think of,” said Iuliano, who was born in France and lived many years in southern Italy, as he stirred a family gelato recipe. “It’s painful, but that’s what it is. You’ve got to evolve as the situation evolves, otherwise you’re upside down. I’ve got a kid in college.”
Restaurants like Iuliano’s are at a critical moment in their struggle to survive a statewide lockdown that shut them down entirely for months, then allowed them to open for takeout and finally serve diners on the sidewalk.
Now, the outdoor dining that has kept many restaurants afloat over the summer won’t last long as winter comes, and Bay Area restaurateurs are insisting it’s safe — and essential for their survival — to dine inside.
But state and local authorities still prohibit indoor dining in more than half the state’s counties, even as a summer infection surge subsides. A study last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that suggested restaurants pose a higher risk for COVID-19 has made authorities more cautious about letting them reopen.
For now, Iuliano is among California’s most fortunate restaurant owners — Santa Cruz is one of the counties in the state’s red reopening tier whose substantial virus outbreaks are manageable enough to allow indoor dining at 25% capacity.
Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Sonoma and Solano counties, which remain in the purple tier for widespread outbreaks, can still only serve takeout or outdoors. And while indoor dining has resumed in other red-tier counties such as Marin and Napa, local authorities in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, also in the red tier, still won’t allow it. San Francisco announced Friday it will allow indoor dining once the county improves to the “orange” tier, which will occur no sooner than the end of the month.
In justifying stricter restrictions, Santa Clara County officials cited the recent CDC report, which found adults with COVID-19 were twice as likely to have eaten at restaurants in the 14 days before becoming sick than those who tested negative.
“One critical lesson we learned about COVID-19 is that outdoor gatherings are safer than indoor gatherings,” the county said in a statement. “We have also learned that face coverings play a critical role in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Indoor dining necessarily involves removal of face coverings indoors, which makes it higher risk.”
The CDC study did not distinguish between indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants. And the National Restaurant Association pointed to other concerns about the study’s findings.
“The study tells us that people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 had also dined out,” the association said. “There is no clear evidence that the virus was actually contracted at a restaurant versus any other community locations.”
Dr. Kiva Fisher, the study’s lead author, said the CDC hasn’t changed its guidance for those who choose to dine out — wear a mask when not eating or drinking, wash hands frequently, keep six feet away from those outside your household, check the restaurant’s prevention practices and consider take-out as an option.
“What we found is that the odds of reporting dining at a restaurant was two times higher among those who tested positive for COVID-19,” Fisher said. “While this study did not differentiate between dining indoors or outdoors, the results of this study highlight the importance of taking preventive actions if you choose to dine out.”
For Silicon Valley restaurant owners, Santa Clara County’s continued indoor dining ban has gone down like spoiled salmon. Business groups across the valley complain the county is being overly restrictive and say restaurateurs are considering a lawsuit and a mass reopening as a defiant protest act.
Sushi Confidential owner Randy Musterer said he won’t violate county rules but understands the frustration and that keeping restaurants closed in some counties and not others makes no sense. A former cancer researcher, Musterer also had worked on swine flu vaccine testing, where the approach was to figure out how to do it safely.
“You don’t say, ‘It’s too infectious,’ you develop safety protocols to protect the researcher from that virus,” Musterer said. “Now that our community has six months of experience, we know what we can do to keep ourselves safe, it’s now time to focus on a solution to how to safely open up restaurants. The solution can’t be at this point, ‘You’re not going to open up inside.’ ”
Musterer added that “by closing down these restaurants, it forces people to do events at their own house with zero control,” where he has personally witnessed lax behavior.
“I did a delivery drop-off to a house, I’m wearing a mask, gloves — there was about 40 people in this house, everyone running around and they were having some sort of celebration. I was like, wow, this is where COVID is spreading.”
Restaurants have been among businesses hardest hit by California’s virus restrictions, jolted this way and that as rules shifted over the year. The California Restaurant Association said that before the pandemic, there were 90,000 restaurants in the state employing 1.4 million people and generating more than $7 billion annually in taxes. Now thousands have closed already, 30% say they will close or downsize, and 59% say they cannot survive at half capacity.
Iuliano was limited for 10 weeks to serving only takeout, then allowed outdoor tables, then indoors at 50% capacity. That was shut briefly, then allowed to resume at 25% capacity. He has rolled with each punch, negotiating with his landlord for more outdoor space and spending more than $5,000 on more outdoor tables and portable heaters.
But on a recent weekday evening, only one solo Cafe Mare diner chose to dine out on the patio. As the sky dimmed and the mercury slipped into the 60s, masked diners who strolled up were pleasantly surprised when told they could be seated inside.
Bram and June Bout, of Los Gatos, had come to celebrate their end of two weeks in voluntary quarantine after a trip to Yellowstone National Park. June Bout said she was uncomfortable with the crowding and lack of mask-wearing she saw at eateries there but was reassured by the masking and sanitizing at Cafe Mare.
Tabletop containers of salt, pepper, oil and vinegar get a vinegar bath after customers leave. Bread baskets are sent through the washing machine after every use. Six-foot social distancing markers adorn the floors. Signs urge diners to wear masks when not eating or drinking.
“This is totally fine,” she said. “When you talk to the waiter and they’re all wearing masks, you feel safe. When you see the staff cleaning between guests, it gives you a sense that it’s OK.”
