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After nearly seven weeks of a stay-at-home order for a regional coronavirus, Santa Barbara County restaurants on Tuesday will again be able to serve customers on-site, rather than sending them out with take-out orders.
California Governor Gavin Newsom lifted the stay-at-home order on Monday, which will allow restaurants to reopen with modified outdoor services.
The statewide order was put in place in early December in an effort to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state.
Yona Estrada, owner of YonaRedz on the 500 block of State Street, told Noozhawk he would serve diners in the outdoor seating area of his restaurant on Tuesday, while following COVID-19 guidelines to maintain social distancing, wear a mask and separate individual tables, among other protocols.
“I’m excited about this,” Estrada said. “I can’t wait to get my tables out and let my customers enjoy the dishes I serve just off the grill. I can’t wait to see bustling State Street return to its normalcy. “
YonaRedz, in the 500 block of State Street, will serve meals in its outdoor dining room starting Tuesday. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
He noted that eating a meal there in a restaurant is much better than consuming the same food outside.
“The experience of ordering food is better when you eat it than when you bring it home,” Estrada said. “It’s a different experience when you eat there.”
Some restaurants are barely surviving amid the ever-changing restrictions during the COVID-19 crisis, and allowing this hard-hit industry to reopen for outdoor services will help boost food and beverage sales and increase demand. workforce of the restaurant community.
After weeks of uncertainty, the move to outdoor dining facilities will be a game changer for several local restaurants.
“It will change everything for all of us because in my region some places are completely closed,” Estrada said. “It hurt everyone in this block because people who went to bars also came to our restaurant to get food.”
Brandon Ristaino, who has over 20 years of hospitality, bartending and management experience, welcomed the decision to reopen.
Newsom’s move is good news for the local hospitality industry, Ristaino said.
Ristaino and his wife, Misty, are co-owners of three cocktail bars in Santa Barbara – Good Lion in the 1200 block of State St.; Test pilot located in the Funk area; and Shaker Mill, a cocktail bar and restaurant on the 400 block of State Street.
“We laid off our team of 42 employees in early December, and five of our businesses were mandated to be shut down by the governor for a total of 117 days,” Ristaino told Noozhawk. “This closure of outdoor eating and drinking was made in the absence of supporting data or scientific study of a substance that shows a strong correlation between outdoor eating and drinking and a spread of COVID. . ”
State officials announced the lifting of the California regional stay-at-home order less than 12 hours after some restaurant owners were told the governor’s office was planning it.
The once bustling State Street promenade in downtown Santa Barbara is nearly empty on Monday. With the lifting of the state’s regional stay-at-home order, restaurants can once again serve out-of-home customers. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Monday’s announcement is a sudden and unexpected policy change on the part of the governor, Ristaino said.
“It will take 3 to 5 days for our business to prepare for a safe reopening, and we intend to do so next Saturday,” said Ristaino. “We will continue to adhere to the latest COVID security measures and continue to provide a safe place for our customers to relax and enjoy a meal and a few cocktails.
We are so happy to be able to reopen and make a living again, ”he added.
Over the next few days, other local business owners are preparing to reopen an outdoor restaurant this week in Santa Barbara.
Third Window Brewing Co., located inside the mill on East Haley Street in Santa Barbara, will begin serving food to customers outside by the end of the week, CEO and founder Kristopher Parker said. .
Monday morning staff were in the process of shifting the focus in the Third Window kitchen from the take out only kitchen to safely serving food outside, and will be working with all of its pop-up partners in the same goal.
Before the stay-at-home order was lifted, three of the state’s five regions – including Santa Barbara County as part of the Southern California Multi-County Region – were subject to strict rules based on the capacity of the intensive care unit of the hospital in the region.
Regions in California fell under Newsom’s stay-at-home order when one region saw its percentage of hospital intensive care capacity drop below 15%.
“The four-week intensive care unit capacity projections for these three regions are above 15%, the threshold that allows regions to break out of order,” public health department officials said on Monday. of California in a statement.
The order prohibited outdoor dining facilities, and restaurants were only open for take out.
Patio heaters are hand-held at Opal Restaurant on the 1300 block of State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. With the lifting of the state’s regional stay-at-home order, restaurants can once again serve out-of-home customers. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Services and activities, such as al fresco dining, may resume with necessary modifications, unless further restrictions by local jurisdictions, according to CRPD officials.
On Monday evening, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department released an order from the local health official outlining county-specific restrictions and allowances for businesses.
Restaurants, gymnasiums and fitness centers, cinemas, museums, zoos and aquariums, and personal care services can reopen outdoors with modifications in the purple level.
The county ordinance goes into effect Tuesday at 8 a.m.
All businesses in Santa Barbara County are required to follow all state guidelines for their industry and a self-attestation to notify employees and the public that their business has taken the necessary steps to ensure a safe reopening in the midst of the pandemic.
The county will continue to restrict gatherings of any size for the time being, the county’s Joint COVID-19 Information Center said in a statement on Monday.
A sign of the times on the 500 block of State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. From Tuesday, restaurants can again serve customers outside. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Santa Barbara will revert to the color-coded tier system based on local case rates and test positivity, and remain in the most restrictive purple tier.
A county is considered purple for having “widespread” transmission of COVID-19 in the community.
Most domestic operations will have to remain closed in Santa Barbara County while in the Purple Level.
County public health official Dr Henning Ansorg urged people to “please stay the course.”
“Avoid gatherings, wear your face mask and stay six feet from those you don’t live with,” he said Monday. “We are getting closer, but this (COVID-19 pandemic) is not over yet.”
– Brooke Holland, editor of Noozhawk, can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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