Bay Area restaurants are scrambling over new mask advice, including one that sacks all unvaccinated staff

Health officials have said that fully vaccinated people are protected against serious illness, and the new guidelines are an effort to prevent the spread of the contagious delta variant among unvaccinated people. A universal recommendation, officials said, would make it easier to verify that the unvaccinated are masking themselves. The guidelines were published in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties; Napa and Solano counties did not join the recommendation.

Although restaurant staff have been given priority for vaccinations and infections have been drastically reduced, the coronavirus still infects people in the hospitality industry. Recently, restaurants such as Khom Loi in Sevastopol, Trinks Cafe in Gualala (Mendocino County) and the reopened Tosca Cafe in San Francisco had to temporarily close due to a positive case of coronavirus among their staff.

“If someone doesn’t want to be vaccinated, we’ll let them go. It’s terrible, but we need people to understand it’s serious, ”said Khan, who noted that most of his employees are vaccinated. “Better to be safe than sorry.

Others have reinstated mask warrants for their staff. On Friday afternoon, in Wursthall in downtown San Mateo, general manager Xian Choy was handing out masks to employees in response to the new guidelines. Prior to Friday, any employee who showed proof of vaccination did not have to wear a face cover at work, Choy said. El Rio, the 42-year-old queer bar in the Mission District of San Francisco, had let employees decide how to wear their masks, but starting Friday, staff members will be required to wear them, according to general manager Lynne Angel.

We do not know what restaurants will ask diners. Bay Area health officials said in their announcement that “businesses are urged to adopt universal masking requirements for customers entering interior areas of their businesses to provide better protection for their employees. and customers “.

Starting Friday, Zareen’s will require customers to wear face masks again indoors. Daly City Korean restaurant Bart Grocery alerted customers on Instagram that it would reinstate a mask requirement: “With the number of delta variants continuing to increase and for the safety of our staff, we are kindly demanding that masks be worn in our store. “

But the new guidelines are likely to cause confusion – and possibly hindsight – among customers. Choy of Wursthall said the restaurant will not yet force customers to put on masks inside, wanting to avoid confrontations. “There’s so much friction if we’re the first restaurant to be like, ‘You have to wear your mask inside,’” Choy said.

It just doesn’t seem realistic to get diners to cover their faces again, said Bob Cina, District Executive Chef in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

“I don’t think we are in a position to make demands beyond what is mandated,” he said. “People can make their own decisions. “

Alexis Solomou of the Italian Russian Hill spot Seven Hills said part of him wanted San Francisco to force the wearing of the mask again so that he would not be in the difficult position of asking diners to wear masks when other restaurants could not. At the same time, he said another mask warrant would likely freak people out.

“I know if they apply the masks we’ll have a bunch of cancellations,” he said. Solomou said he is considering asking diners to wear masks when they are not at their tables and asking employees to mask themselves again.

Some Bay Area restaurants won’t have to change much because of these tips. After most restrictions were lifted in June, some safety-conscious restaurants established their own masking rules to be more careful in the case of this exact scenario: new public health guidelines.

The owners of the Bartavelle Cafe in Berkeley, which has remained reserved for take-out, are relieved that they don’t need to make major changes to their operations. Owner Sam Sobolewski said his cafe kept applying masks to customers queuing outside. At Cassava in San Francisco, fully vaccinated staff continued to wear masks at work, co-owner Yuka Ioroi said.

Yet even these restaurateurs are willing to make more changes if needed. “We’ll probably have another meeting on this as a staff and see how it all goes,” Sobolewski said.

To overlook all of this is the fear of another stop. In a statement, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association said it was not surprised by the new guidelines and that they highlight why outdoor dining is an ongoing and crucial lifeline for restaurants. The San Francisco board of directors voted this week to allow small businesses to continue using public sidewalks and parking lots for parklets and food courts. But other cities in the Bay Area have yet to decide whether the street closures and outdoor parks will become permanent or longer term.

And while Friday’s news won’t change Ioroi’s plans to reopen dining inside her Outer Richmond restaurant next month, she stressed the importance of taking the mask recommendation seriously to avoid more closures.

“I don’t think a lot of restaurants can handle another stop,” she said. “It could mitigate the risk of that. “

Editor Ryan Kost contributed to this report.

Elena Kadvany and Janelle Bitker are the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @ekadvany, @janellebitker