I get there are these experts making these recommendations but my issue is if a certain industry bears the burden for society’s safety, society should be helping with that burden financially.” A raft of bad news “In the past month we just wanted to not sink as fast, and now they’ve given us lead weight belts, so we’re in this constant state of sinking. And with a recent directive to nix late-night operations, an additional 30 percent in business has evaporated, he estimates. Business at the Waterfront, a densely packed watering hole in normal times, had already been down about 50 percent because of the mandate to seat customers 6 feet apart. “We’re getting destroyed,” said Chad Cline, co-owner of the Waterfront Bar & Grill in Little Italy and a number of other nightlife venues, including the Aero Club. The Waterfront Bar in Little Italy, as it normally looks during pre-pandemic times, opened in 1933 after the end of Prohibition. Confined spaces with now limited seating due to social distancing guidelines and a bar culture that encourages mingling make it that much harder to turn a profit, much less break even.Īnd many neighborhood bars and eateries don’t have the luxury of ample patio seating, which would still be allowed should indoor service be shut down in the coming week. In an industry that already has to contend with the thinnest of profit margins, the uncertainty associated with the coronavirus’ capricious nature has raised questions in the minds of operators of how much longer they can survive as the infection rates show no signs of slowing. The result has been a set of on-again, off-again reopening and closing orders that have thrown hospitality owners - and their employees - into an emotional and financial tailspin.
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Restaurants and bars have also consistently led the list of widening COVID community outbreak locations that have troubled public health officials. (Ariana Drehsler/The San Diego Union-Tribune)Īs the coronavirus’ spread has ensnared increasing numbers of young people in the last few weeks, health officials have deduced that dining out and drinking at recently reopened restaurants and bars may be partly to blame, despite the businesses’ best efforts to control the virus’ spread with plexiglass barriers, constant sanitation and repeated reminders to remain 6 feet apart. “We won’t make any money, that’s for sure, we just do it because it’s the right thing to do for our staff and customers. “Here we are, getting ready for a dress rehearsal and we already just lost our late night hours, and now we may be losing indoor dining altogether, so do we pull the plug, but we can’t because all these employees came back,” fretted Georgopoulos, a seasoned nightlife and restaurant operator and partner with the RMD Group, which has seven San Diego venues, including his new Huntress steakhouse. With an alarming surge in coronavirus cases, San Diego could be next, the county said.
Just hours earlier, county officials had warned of the looming threat this week of a ban on all indoor dining and drinking, which 19 California counties, including Los Angeles and Orange, have already been ordered to implement for the next three weeks. The floor-to-ceiling wine display and marble bar top were dazzling, and the wait staff, nattily attired in black pants, pressed white shirts, gray vests and green ties, meticulously polished the glassware for the Friday opening.īut why bother opening at all, he wondered. As Mike Georgopoulos was prepping this week to finally open his swanky $10 million steakhouse in the Gaslamp Quarter, he stared down from his perch on the mezzanine with a mixture of delight - and dread.